A study of conversation analysis

During the recent decades Conversation Analysis has developed into a distinctive method for analyzing talk in interaction. The method is utilized in several disciplines sharing an interest in social interaction, like anthropology, linguistics, social psychology, and sociology, and it has been applied to a great variety of languages and types of interaction. Conversation Analysis then is coming of age as a truly comparative enterprise. This volume presents and discusses comparative approaches to analyzing interactional practices and structures. The contributors to the volume have their background in sociology, linguistics, and logopedics. They offer comparative analyses of activity types, participant roles and identities, displays of emotion, and design of actions such as questions and corrections. The languages covered by the chapters include English, Finnish, German, and Swedish. This volume is of interest to all those interested in the research of language and social interaction. Because of its methodological nature, the book can also be utilized in teaching and in learning the discovery procedures typical of Conversation Analysis.

This collection offers a multifaceted view of the life, research and impact of Emanuel A. Schegloff, the co-originator, with Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson, of Conversation Analysis (or CA), and its leading contemporary authority. The first section introduces Schegloff’s life and work, and, using a series of interviews with him, provides a concise, comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field’s major aims and achievements. Next many of the world’s leading researchers from various disciplines – including Communication, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, and Sociology – build on Schegloff’s foundational research, analyzing encounters from everyday and institutional settings (conducted in English, German, Korean, Mandarin, and Russian) to explicate how conversation and other conduct in interaction are organized. The final section of the book includes reflections on Schegloff’s contributions by some of his major interlocutors and Schegloff’s response to them.

′This book admirably fulfils its stated objective of describing social research methods in action and exploring, from a range of perspectives, the linguistic shaping of social context. Overall, this is a balanced, well-edited and coherent collection of papers, bringing together high quality work from recognized authorities in the analysis of talk-in-interaction. It is also highly accessible; it would certainly make an excellent resource book for undergraduate, graduate (and practising!) social scientists ′ - Rebecca Clift, University of Essex ′Talk and Interaction in Social Research Methodologies is a much-needed methods text. Focusing on research methods in action, the volume offers a new way of viewing the realities of social research. By taking language use seriously, the text reveals the details and depths of a wide range of research projects as they have seldom been presented before. This is the first book of its kind to offer such a powerful and insightful depiction of the role of talk-in-interaction in relation to social research methods. The book′s plan is creative and unparalleled. There′s nothing else like it. The editors—Paul Drew, Geoffrey Raymond and Darin Weinberg—represent the very best from multiple traditions of researching talk-in-interaction—from both sides of the Atlantic. The chapters are written by a sterling collection of researchers—a virtual honor roll of conversation analysts and kindred spirits. This book is a "must read" for social researchers of all disciplines who are interested in social interaction. It should be assigned reading for all graduate students being introduced to qualitative methods. It should be on every qualitative researcher′s book shelf. It is a tour de force in demonstrating the absolutely fundamental position that language use holds in social science methodology′ - James A Holstein, Marquette University This is a methodology text with a difference. It demonstrates the importance of talk in a variety of social research methodologies. Even documents, the seemingly least interactional form of social data, are shown to have important interactional dimensions. The book focuses systematically on how sociological methods are essentially conducted through forms of spoken interaction, and how these interactions shape the results that emerge in research. The book demonstrates: " How spoken interactions shape the outcomes of core research methodologies " The role which talk-in-interaction plays in key substantive areas of sociology notably race, crime, gender and media " Reveals the interactional underpinnings of research methodologies This is the first text aimed at an undergraduate and Master′s audience in Sociology and Social Research, which shows the crucial part that spoken interaction plays in the conduct and products of conventional sociological methodologies.

Interest in transcript-based research has grown significantly in recent years. Alongside this growth has been an increase in awareness of the empirical utility of naturalistic research on language use in interaction. However, a quick scan of the literature reveals that very few transcription books have been published in the past three decades. This is an astonishing fact given that there are perhaps hundreds of books published on spoken discourse analysis. This book aims to narrow this gap by providing an introduction to the theories and practices related to transcribing communication data. The book is intended for students with little to no knowledge of transcription work and/or instructors responsible for teaching introductory courses on transcript-based research. Readers who are learning or teaching discourse/conversation analysis or similar analytic methods of investigation will find this book particularly helpful. The author: Christopher Jenks has many years of experience teaching transcription work and analysis of communication data to postgraduate students and researchers. In addition to running workshops and giving presentations on similar topics at universities around the world, he has published widely in top international journals and has numerous other forthcoming publications.

This resource offers original studies of interaction in a range of languages and language varieties, including Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, and Vietnamese; monolingual and bilingual interactions, and activities designed for second or foreign language learning.

Talk in Action examines the language, identity, and interaction of social institutions, introducing students to the research methodology of Conversation Analysis. Features a unique focus on real-world applications of CA by examining four institutional domains: calls to emergency numbers, doctor-patient interaction, courtroom trials, and mass communication, Provides a theoretical and methodological overview of the roots of CA, reviewing the main developments and findings of research on talk and social institutions conducted over the past 25 years Showcases the significance of this subject to everyday events, making it ideal for students coming to the field for the first time Written by two leading figures in the field of Conversation Analysis