Doctor-patient Conversation Analysis: A Sociolinguistic Perspective on the Case of COVID-19 in Esfahan, Iran

Abstract

Comprehending the striking role of Conversation Analysis (CA) research in a real context on the one hand, and a substantial part doctors play in doctor-patient conversation in the proceeding stages of receiving medical intensive care as an inherent nature of society on the other hand, provoked the researchers to conduct this research. To achieve this intention, the present study focuses on conversation aspects of doctor-patient talks in unconfirmed cases of COVID-19 in Golpayegan, Esfahan, Iran. This study tries to find out what conversation aspects are more frequently used by Iranian interlocutors in the context of the doctors’ office. Three doctor-patient meetings, for this purpose, were audio-recorded, then transcribed. The focus is on both the talk and nonverbal aspects of conversation to be analyzed. After doing the conversation analysis, it was found that turn-taking was the most frequently used conversation aspect. Because this investigation is among the first conversation analysis research which is conducted in the Iranian doctor-patient context in COVID-19 setting, it seems outstanding. In addition, as teaching conversation analysis to students in parallel with other outstanding skills, sub-skills, and language components has great importance, and the analysis method utilized in the current research is conversation analysis, this study sounds prominent.