AJ32076 Conversation analysis and working with recordings of interpersonal interaction

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 15 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. František Tůma, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. František Tůma, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/15, only registered: 0/15
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of this course is to introduce the background, procedures and findings in conversation-analytic research. After situating conversation analysis among other ways of analyzing interaction/discourse, the course focuses on selected aspects of analyzing mundane interaction. After that, the areas of classroom interaction and second/foreign language acquisition are discussed. Inherent to this course is the student’s work with his or her own data building on the background and procedures in conversation analysis.
Learning outcomes
After finishing this course the students will be able to: - Introduce the theoretical background of conversation-analytic research, justify the selection of conversation analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework for analyzing interaction, discuss the benefits and drawbacks of conversation analysis, - Describe and independently employ conversation-analytic procedures (data transcription and analysis) on selected recordings of interpersonal interaction, - Introduce conversation-analytic findings related to everyday interaction in a selected area, - Compare and contrast the characteristics of everyday and institutional interaction, discuss the implications for researching institutional interaction, - Discuss the specific area of conversation analytic research on classroom interaction – outline the topics, procedures and selected findings, discuss the relationship between interaction and learning in interaction, differentiate various approaches to address (foreign/second) language learning/acquisition, - Prepare a research report that corresponds to the requirements for conversation-analytic studies.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to conversation analysis (CA): various perspectives on discourse/interaction, the specific aspects of CA, the tradition of CA research on classroom interaction. 2. Theoretical and methodological aspects of CA: Ethnomethodology, Philosophy of Language, performative and Speech Acts Theory, Interactional Sociolinguistics, Membership Categorization Analysis. Transcription and basic analytic procedures. 3. Turn-taking: the “problem” of turn-taking, “units” in interaction – the definition of Turn Constructional Units (TCUs) and Transition Relevance Places (TRPs), sequential organization – basic types of sequences. 4. Repair: the relationship between turn-taking and (self-)repair, the distinction between repair and correction, types of repair sequences, the role of repair in achieving intersubjectivity vs. maintaining progressivity. 5. Preference organization: the relationship between turn-taking and action, expressing (dis)agreement in interaction. 6. Multimodality in CA: language, embodied and material resources in interaction, transcription conventions and fundamental issues in multimodal CA. 7. CA and institutional interaction: the definition of institutional interaction and its specific aspects, the differences from mundane conversation. 8. Specific aspects of classroom interaction research and second/foreign language acquisition: an overview of types and foci of research, the social turn in second/foreign language acquisition theories, the relationship between language learning and use in interaction, longitudinal research, interactional competence.
Literature
    required literature
  • Gardner, R. (2019). Classroom interaction research: The state of the art. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 52(3), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2019.1631037
  • Heritage, J., & Clayman, S. (2010). Talk in action. Interactions, identities, and institutions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Sidnell, J., & Stivers, T. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of conversation analysis. Chichester: Blackwell.
  • AUER, Peter. Jazyková interakce. Edited by Jiří Nekvapil - Petr Kaderka - Marek Nekula - Vít Dovalil - Ivo Vas. Vydání první. Praha: NLN, 2014, 305 stran. ISBN 9788074222689. info
  • SCHEGLOFF, Emanuel A. Sequence organization in interaction : a primer in conversation analysis. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, xvi, 300. ISBN 9780521825726. info
    recommended literature
  • Atkinson, M. J. & Heritage, J. (Ed.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Firth, A., & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. The Modern Language Journal, 81(3), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.2307/329302
  • Heritage, J. (2001). Goffman, Garfinkel and conversation analysis. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, & S. J. Yates (Ed.), Discourse theory and practice: A reader (s. 47–56). London: Sage.
  • Clift, R. (2016). Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Markee, N. (2008). Toward a learning behavior tracking methodology for CA-for-SLA. Applied Linguistics, 29(3), 404–427. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm052
  • Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation analysis. Studies from the first generation. (s. 13–31). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Mondada, L. (2018). Multiple temporalities of language and body in interaction: Challenges for transcribing multimodality. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 51(1), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2018.1413878
  • Mondada, L. (2019). Conventions for transcribing multimodality: https://www.lorenzamondada.net/multimodal-transcription
  • Bucholtz, M. (2000). The politics of transcription. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10), 1439–1465. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00094-6
  • Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696–735.
  • Pekarek Doehler, S., & Pochon-Berger, E. (2015). The development of L2 interactional competence: Evidence from turn-taking organization, sequence organization, repair organization and preference organization. In T. Cadierno & S. W. Eskildsen (Ed.), Usage
  • Mondada, L. (2019). Contemporary issues in conversation analysis: Embodiment and materiality, multimodality and multisensoriality in social interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 145, 47–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.01.016
  • Firth, A., & Wagner, J. (2007). Second/foreign language learning as a social accomplishment: Elaborations on a reconceptualized SLA. The Modern Language Journal, 91(s1), 800–819.
  • Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361–382.
  • Selting, M. (2000). The construction of units in conversational talk. Language in Society, 29(4), 477–517.
  • Streeck, J., Goodwin, C., & LeBaron, C. D. (Ed.). (2011). Embodied interaction. Language and body in the material world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (vybrané kapitoly)
  • The handbook of classroom discourse and interaction. Edited by Numa Markee. First published. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, xv, 538. ISBN 9781118531129. info
  • Discourse studies : a multidisciplinary introduction. Edited by Teun Adrianus van Dijk. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011, xviii, 414. ISBN 9781848606494. info
  • PHILLIPS, Nelson and Cynthia HARDY. Discourse analysis : investigating processes of social construction. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2002, vi, 97. ISBN 0761923624. info
  • SILVERMAN, David. Harvey Sacks : social science and conversation analysis. 1st pub. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998, x, 222. ISBN 0745617115. info
Teaching methods
Independent study, discussion, independent analysis of data, presentation and follow-up discussion
Assessment methods
Attendance and active participation in face-to-face meetings, submission of a research report whose length, structure and quality correspond to the requirements for conversation-analytic studies published in research journals.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: in blocks.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2021.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/AJ32076