Are you interested? (Talking in an ATC) Kernan and Sabsay (1989) have shown that non-disabled persons recognize someone as having a learning disability primarily because of the way that person talks. Such persons are perceived to be socially unskilled and linguistically incompetent. Frequently they are perceived…
Conversation Analysis 101
Anything on the Back Channel?
Where have all the tokens gone? “Well, well….” “Right….yeah.” “Oh, really?….I see.” “Uh huh….uh huh.” “Mm hm….mm.” Vocalizations such as uh huh, mm and oh pervade conversational interaction. They are everywhere. There can hardly be…
Analyzing Conversation
Procedures for analyzing conversation As one might expect, there are several approaches to analyzing conversational interaction. The approaches and procedures vary according to such things as the theoretical assumptions the investigators bring to the task and their overarching aim. For example, John Searle (1969) and John…
Appendix 4: Answers to Exercises
Suggested answers Exercise 1 Any three of: no predetermined cognitive map collaboratively achieved managed on a turn-by-turn basis one-at-a-time talk highly coordinated Exercise 2 1 A [TCU he shows his fist to you does he?] [TRP]…
Appendix 3: Exercises
Exercises and activities Exercise 1 List three characteristics of conversation. Exercise 2 Identify the turn-constructional units [TCU] and transition relevance places [TRP] in the following extract from a conversation between two people, A and B:…
CA in Action
An example CA analysis We will now work through an example analysis of naturally occurring conversation. The aim is to demonstrate how to conduct CA analyses of conversation data by walking through the appropriate methodological steps which would be taken by any conversation analyst. We will…
Step 7: Generate Theory
We have noted that conversation analysis is an inductive methodology that uses real world observations to make generalizations about some particular phenomenon. Indeed, a primary objective of inductive methodologies is the generation of theory through generalization. However, the scope of investigation will vary from study to…
Step 6: Answer Questions
Answer the research questions In the same way that the research questions originate from an examination of the conversational data (see Step 5: Ask Questions), so the evidence required to answer these questions must also be drawn from the same conversational data. This is an essential…