Socializing amongst students – an investigation of small talk phenomenon from the perspective of female university students

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to concentrate on the phenomenon of small talk. It attempts to analyze the functions of small talk, the attitudes to small talk and the circumstances which either favour or impede the occurrence of small talk, such as formality, the interlocutors, the topics, etc. The study concentrates on the attitude of Polish, Greek and Spanish female students to the phenomenon of small talk. There are a number of queries in the form of a questionnaire that the informants were exposed to. Based on the informants’ responses, the obtained results will determine the factors which facilitate the occurrence of small talk, the significance of small talk, the functions it serves and the attitude the informants have towards this allegedly trivial and flippant phenomenon.