Conversation Analysis

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2.  1.Historical foundations
 2. Principal Findings in CA
 Turn-taking
 Adjacency pairs and sequence organization
 Repair
 Turn design
 CA and Applied Linguistics
 Applications of CA
 CA and education settings
 DA vs.CA
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Ethno- methodology is the study
of methods people use for
understanding and producing the
social order in which they live.

6. • For Sacks, two important functions of CA
– that it kept its grip “on the primary data of the social world
– that it was testable and examinable by more than the sociologist
performing the analysis.
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7. Conversation analysis is : “an approach within the social
sciences that aims to describe, analyse and understand
talk as a basic and constitutive feature of human life...
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Conversation Analysis (commonly abbreviated as (CA) is an
approach to the study of social interaction,
embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in
situations of everyday life.

8. An activity in which, for the most part, two or more people
take turns at speaking.
Some features of conversational interaction:
Typically, only one person speaks at a time.
Usually, silence is avoided.
If two people talk at the same time, one of them stops.
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A: Didn’t you [know wh-
B: [But he must’ve been there by two
A: Yes, but you knew where he was going

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10. • What makes talk a
worthy focus of study
for social scientists
from such a diversity
of backgrounds?
Talk is, first, “what appears to be
the primordial site of sociality”
(Schegloff, 1986, p. 112). This is
an important notion with its
implication that it is talk above all
else that allows us to transcend
isolation and to share our lives
with others.
Talk is a crucial activity at the center of world-
changing events: summit meetings between world
leaders, policy decisions in board rooms of
multinational companies, international conferences
on environmental policies. It is also a means we use
to do the mundane and routine in life: the
exchange of greetings with a neighbor, polite chit-
chat with workmates during a break, ordering a
snack at lunch time.
Talk
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11. A. Turn-taking
What Is a Turn?
a turn is the speech of one person
continued until another takes the
floor.
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Ochs( 1979 : 63) defines a turn as
“an utterance bounded by
significant pause or by utterance of
other participants’’.

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14. • Additionally, Sacks et al. suggest a number of
rules that operate on turn units using the
symbol NS for the next speaker,
• and TRP for Transition Relevant Place defined
as the recognizable end of a turn
constructional unit.
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15. NS•
• The Current Speaker Selects The Next Speaker
• The Next speaker Self-selects
• The Current Speaker May Continue.
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16. • A transition-relevance place (TRP) takes
place at the completion of an utterance; it
is the change-of-turn place (Wang, 2011).
• 1.If a speaker is selected by the current
speaker, then that speaker must take the
turn at the next transition relevance place.
• A. Venus: Where should we go now, turn
left or turn right?Winnie.
• B. Winnie: I don't know, I am sorry.
• In this situation, A pass the turn to B by
asking a question.16

17. • 2. If no other speaker self-selects to take the role, the current
speaker may then continue to talk again.
• Example
• Venus: Which is the correct direction to go, left or right?
• Winnie, Joanna, Hailey: (Silence)
• Venus: No one knows?
• Venus: Ok, turn right then.
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TRP

18. The Functions of Adjacency Pairs
Adjacency pairs are used to
coordinate turns
They help in opening and closing a
conversation, Negotiate deals and
Change topics
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19. • They are two utterances long
• The utterances are produced successively by different
speakers
• The utterances are ordered – the first must belong to the class
of first pair parts , the second to the class of second pair parts.
• The utterances are related , not any second pair can follow
any first pair part , but only appropriate one
• The first pair part often selects next speaker and always
selects next action – it thus sets up a transition relevance and
expectation which the next speaker fulfills , in other words
the first part of a pair predicts the occurrence of the second
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20. • Prototypical examples of adjacency pairs
would be the following:
• 1) greeting-greeting:
• A: Hello.
• B: Hello.
• 2) offer-acceptance:
• A: Would you care for more tea?
• B: Yes, please.
• 3) apology-minimization:
• A: I’m sorry.
• B: Oh, don’t worry. That’s O.K
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21. • Adjacency pairs are used to coordinate turns
• They help in opening and closing a
conversation
• Negotiate deals
• Change topics
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22. Repair
An important strategy speakers use in spoken discourse is what is
termed Repair, that is, the way speakers correct things they or
someone else has said, and check what they have understood in
a conversation. Repair is often done through self repair and
other repair .
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23. • Self-initiated repair is differentiated from other
initiated
• repair. Self-repair within a turn may be signaled
by phenomena such as glottal stops, lengthened
vowels, etc.
• Repair initiated by a participant other than the
speaker may be achieved by the use of echo-
questions, repetitions of problematic items with
stress on problem syllables, or by using
expressions such as
• What?, Pardon?, Excuse me?, etc.
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24. • self-initiated self repairs
• ) the speaker himself can
initiate his mistake)
• Example
• Ruby: What have you done at
the weekend?
• LiXun: I go …….¦I have gone to
see a movie.
• In the example, LiXun initiates
that he uses the wrong tense
so he changes 'go' into 'have
gone' immediately.
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25. • Not only the speaker himself can initiate
his mistake, but other speakers also can
do so. The speaker himself will repair it.
This situation is called other-initiated self
repair.
• The same situation as what mentioned
above. The situation is changed.
• Ruby: What have you seen?
• LiXun: I go to see a movie.
• Ruby: (surprised) What do you mean?
• LiXun: I said I have gone to a movie.
• In this example, LiXun does not initiate
that he uses the wrong tense. Ruby
however dose. She reminds LiXun to
repair.
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26. • The Aspects Of Grammar Or The Way In Which A Turn At
Talk, Or A Turn Constructional Unit, Is Put Together.
• It can be considered as something that is constructed in response
to the contingencies of the local meaning and social requirements
of the emerging talk.
• It is about the relationship between form and function: the
morphosyntax and lexis of an utterance, and the action it is
designed to achieve
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27. • To Make An Offer, For Example, Speakers Can
Design Their Turn As A Conditional
• If Your Husband Would Like The Address, My
Husband Would Gladly Give It To Him),
• Declarative (I’ll Take Her In Sunday), Or
• Interrogative (Do You Want Me To Bring The
Chairs?),
• Each Of Which Systematically Occurs In Particular
sequential positions
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29. Applications of CA
• CA and education settings
Interaction is the key concept in
educational settings
In an early study using CA methodology in an
educational setting, McHoul investigated
turn-taking in formal classrooms, and
proposed a set of turn taking rules derived
from Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson (1974),
which laid out rules which allowed “that
only teachers can direct speakership in any
creative way” (McHoul, 1978, p. 188)
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30. Student Interaction
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31. • Focus on Linguistics Practice in School:
• Elicitation (IRE/IRF): a functional analysis of
classroom talk
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Griffin&Shy

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IRE

33. • T:…And .I've got this here. What`s that ?Trevor. initiation
• S. An axe. response
• T. Its an axe yes. What do we cut with the axe? Follow-
up/initiation
• S. Wood ,wood response
• T. Yes, I cut wood with the axe. Follow-up
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• CA &DA come from different fields:
Sociology
Spoken language
Linguistics
Spoken &Written language
CA DA

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Deductive
approach
DA
CA
Inductive

36. CA& Cooperative Principle
• The cooperative principle has four sub-parts, four rules or
maxims that people involved in conversations tend to
respect:
• -The maxim of quantity=say enough ,but don`t say too
much(Say just as much as is necessary”)
• -The maxim of quality=say only what you have reason to
believe is true. (“Tell the truth”)
•-The maxim of raltion=say only what is relevant.
•(Make your contributions relevant.)
• -the maxim of manner=be breif,clear,and un ambiguous.
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37. • A: What time do you work tomorrow?(quantity)
• B: Tomorrow I work at 2pm.
• In the example, B responds to A’s question without
adding other information.
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• A: Why were you late last night?
• B: My car broke down.
• In the example, B gives truthful information that the
car broke down and that’s why they were late.(quality)
• A: How is the weather today?
• B: It is rainy and cloudy.
• In the example, B provides accurate information that is
relevant to A’s question.(relevance)
• A: Where was the professor when class ended?
• B: She left class and went to her office.
• In the example, B responds with orderly information to
the question posed by A.(manner)
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