Reconstruction in the Analysis of Verbal Interaction

Abstract

Certain analytic techniques devised for the analysis of verbal behavior claim to reflect the density of semantic information in a communicative event. These techniques usually involve some form of content analysis and are applicable to classroom verbal interaction studies. Unfortunately, most studies of classroom interaction do not meet the standards of content analysis. In content analysis, words uttered by participants are assigned by the analyst to categories that represent their meanings. In linguistic terms, content analysis involves placing lexical items into semantic categories. The frequency of words in these categories is then assumed to reflect the semantic preoccupations of the classroom lesson under analysis. This paper argues that traditional techniques of content analysis have failed to take into consideration certain types of implicit information in verbal behavior. (See Hays, 1969 for a similar