Applied Conversation Analysis Research Articles

(Applied) Conversation Analysis as an approach for the study of language and gender: The case of services for female victims of violence in Brazil

In this article I show how (Applied) Conversation Analysis might help us understand human actions in everyday situations. In order to do so, I make use of the results of an investigation of services provided to female victims of domestic violence. I comparatively analyze the discursive practices of professionals in two parallel institutions created to address violence against women in Brazil: a unit of an all-female police station (DDM) and a feminist center of intervention on violence against women (CIV-Mulher or CIV) in their interactions with female victims of domestic violence. The analysis of the interactional data shows that the police officers tend behave with more distance from and control over the victims. The feminists, on the other hand, seem to prioritize more cooperation with and closeness towards the women they serve. I also discuss how studies of this kind might help us broaden our understanding of the relationship between language and gender as well as of power relations.

Balancing Power among Academic and Community Partners: The Case of El Proyecto Bienestar

Balancing power among academic and community partners, addressing community-identified needs, and strengthening community capacity are ethical values unique to community-based participatory research (CBPR). Negotiation of these values in one CBPR environmental justice project was evaluated to advance the environmental and occupational health of a Hispanic agricultural community in central Washington State. Data were collected through document review and participant observation. Applied conversation and discourse analysis were used to interpret the data. Within the organization, farmworkers primarily served an advisory role. Facilitation style influenced how participants negotiated environmental justice. Research goals were advanced in the project, but no direct actions were taken to improve farmworker health. Implementing CBPR's ethical values requires a willingness to confront institutional and interpersonal challenges, and offers a vision of research that builds knowledge and strengthens communities.

The shaping of Gorbachev: On framing in an interpreter-mediated talk-show interview

AbstractThis paper examines a televised interview that BBC journalist and show host Clive Anderson conducted with the former head of state of the dissolved USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, assisted by the interpreter Pavel Palazchenko. The paper explores this interview, focusing on its opening and closing, its local organization, and the involvement of the audience. Applying conversation analysis, the paper traces the generic belonging of current talk and looks into a variety of features that shaped the image of Gorbachev as a television personality in British TV. It demonstrates how Gorbachev and Anderson moved between and played with a ‘talk show interview’ and a ‘news interview’ framing of interaction. The analysis demonstrates how the encounter helped portray Gorbachev as a witty and adequate performer, irrespective of the fact that he did not speak English—the language of the broadcast and of the viewers. This was due to what he said, but no less to how he performed, and not least to his way of utilizing the assistance of the highly skilled interpreter, and also, I will argue, to the fact that the interview allowed him to take part in a shared game of entertainment, in a genuinely hybrid form of talk.

Putting practice into teaching: an exploratory study of nursing undergraduates’ interpersonal skills and the effects of using empirical data as a teaching and learning resource

To understand student nurse-patient interaction better and to assess the effectiveness of a teaching and learning resource consisting of tapes and transcriptions of actual nurse-patient interaction. Applied conversation analysis and analysis of semi-structured lecture evaluation forms. Little research discusses interpersonal skills (IPS) of student-nurses, even though policy initiatives and literature internationally promote patient-centred communication as being an indicator of high-quality healthcare. Literature also suggests that nursing education is often far removed from the realities which students experience during clinical practice. Phase 1 of the study saw 10 student nurse-patient interactions audio recorded and transcribed and the data subjected to conversation analysis. Phase 2 saw tapes and transcripts of similar interactions used as a teaching resource with the same cohort of students (n = 48), student evaluations of the lecture were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Phase 1 demonstrated that, in variance to 'best-practice' recommendations, student nurse-patient interactions were task-centred and bureaucratically organized. In phase 2, after listening to and reading a transcript of similar interaction, students were able to identify the limitations of undertaking such an approach with patients, strongly suggesting that classroom-based knowledge is not always easily transferred into clinical practice. This teaching approach was positively evaluated, with written evaluations emphasizing the effectiveness of bringing the realities of clinical practice into the classroom. This study suggests that students have difficulty in transferring the principles of 'good' communication from the classroom into their own interactions with patients. Students' written and spoken evaluations were reminiscent of the previous work performed in discussing the concept of a 'hidden curriculum' in professional training. The use of empirical data in the practice of IPS teaching is recommended as a means of closing the theory-practice gap. Student nurses and mentors need to consider the effect of the hidden curriculum on their IPS.

Applying conversation analysis to aphasic talk: From investigation to intervention

Résumé L’analyse d’interactions auxquelles participent des locuteurs aphasiques, souffrant d’un trouble du langage suite à un accident cérébral, constitue un domaine de l’« analyse conversationnelle appliquée », qui a été alimenté par de nombreuses recherches ces dernières années. Dans ce champ, l’analyse conversationnelle a informé les interventions de chercheurs aussi bien que les pratiques cliniques de professionnels travaillant avec des locuteurs aphasiques et leurs familles. Cet article offre une synthèse des principaux résultats produits par les travaux portant sur la parole aphasique et s’inspirant des analyses de la structure de la parole-en-interaction ordinaire et non-aphasique - concernant notamment les réparations et l’alternance des tours de parole. L’article esquisse aussi la manière dont cette approche de l’aphasie peut être utilisée dans le domaine clinique ainsi que dans des pratiques professionnelles ordinaires.

Applying conversation analysis

Applying conversation analysis

Communicating about medications during primary care outpatient visits: the role of electronic medical records

To assess the role of electronic medical records (EMR) in facilitating the content and process of patient-provider exchanges about medications during outpatient primary care visits. Fifty encounters with six physicians using the EMR were videotaped, transcribed and content-analysed by applying conversation analysis and ethnomethodology techniques. The analysis focused on three aspects of medication communication: (1) process of care: practices by patients and physicians to implement medication decisions; (2) themes: medication topics that consistently emerge; and (3) names: ways patients and physicians refer to medications. In-depth analysis of 20 encounters examined the extent to which either or both parties initiated, expanded and concluded medication discussions. On average 21.2 (range: 8-35; SD=7.4) distinct exchanges per encounter were observed. Of those, 33% were related to medication. Of the 350 medication-related exchanges throughout the encounters, 56% were categorised as routine medication discussion such as ordering and/or refilling medications. Mailing issues were the next most common medication-related exchanges (10.6%), followed by partial adherence (8.9%), self-regulation (7.4%), alternative therapy/over-the-counter medication (6.6%), side effects (6%) and formulary issues (4.6%). Patients and providers used three ways to name medications: generic/scientific name (42%); physical description (39.7%) and brand name (18.3%). Forty-one percent of exchanges included initiation by one or both parties but no further discussion of the issue; 42% included initiation and expansion by both parties but not conclusion; only 17% of exchanges contained complete medication exchanges (initiation, expansion and conclusion) by both parties. EMR facilitated content and process of communication regarding medications during outpatient encounters, especially among patients taking multiple medications and patients who used physical descriptions to identify their medications. EMR use stimulated medication exchanges, leading to further expansion about the topic. However, fewer than one-fifth of exchanges ended with clear conclusions by both parties regarding prescribed medication regimens.

Designing Conversation: Book Discussions in a Primary Inclusion Classroom

This study examined the nature of student talk and the teacher's role during book discussions. The participants were 17 first- and second-graders with and without disabilities in an inner-city inclusion classroom. Applied conversation analysis techniques were employed to analyze two videotaped book discussions. Results indicated that student-selected topics and contingent talk were necessary for fluent conversational discourse. Additionally, the teacher's role was crucial in apprenticing students to deal with a novel participant structure and its attendant complex linguistic and cognitive requirements. Results also demonstrated the competence with which students with disabilities assumed influential and decisive roles in the discussions. Implications for students with disabilities are discussed in terms of opportunities for self-expression and involvement in constructing and negotiating the activity.

Word Searches in NNS–NS Interaction: Opportunities for Language Learning?

A substantial portion of second language acquisition research focuses on interactional practices in which nonnative speakers (NNSs) engage. From various theoretical viewpoints, it is assumed that certain types of interactional practices, specifically those in which participants focus on linguistic form, may promote language learning. The question of whether, and under which conditions, such sequences can be seen as providing the NNS with language learning opportunities, is considered in a purely data‐driven way, applying conversation analysis (CA) as a method. The article considers one specific type of interactional practice, “word search” sequences, and opportunities for language learning that they may provide for NNSs on the basis of naturally occurring interactions between native speakers of Danish and Dutch speakers of Danish. It is argued that in order to distinguish between “language learning opportunities” and other types of interactional practices, the researcher needs to analyze the data in detail.

Applying conversation analysis in applied linguistics: Evaluating dialogue in English as a second language textbooks

Article Applying conversation analysis in applied linguistics: Evaluating dialogue in English as a second language textbooks was published on April 12, 2002 in the journal International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (volume 40, issue 1).

Applying Conversation Analysis to Foster Accurate Reporting in the Diet History Interview

Inaccuracy in reporting dietary intakes is a major problem in managing diet-related disease. There is no single best method of dietary assessment, but the diet history lends itself well to the clinical setting. In many diet histories data are collected orally, so analysis of interviews can provide insights into reporting behaviors. Conversation analysis is a qualitative method that describes the systematic organization of talk between people. Patterns are identified and checked for consistency within and among individual interviews. The aim of this study was to describe consistent ways of reporting diet histories and to identify conversational features of problematic reporting. Diet history interviews from 62 overweight and insulin resistant adult volunteers (50 women, 12 men) attending an outpatient clinic and 14 healthy volunteers (7 men, 7 women) participating in an energy balance study were audiotaped and transcribed. Conversation analysis identified a remarkably consistent pattern of reporting diet histories and 3 conversational features that indicated problematic reporting: “it depends,” denoting variability (least of all at breakfast); “probably,” suggesting guesswork (related to portion sizes); and elaborated talk on certain foods, distinguishing sensitive topics (eg, alcohol, chocolate, butter/margarine, take-out foods) from safe topics. These findings indicate that there are ways in which dietetics practitioners may conduct the diet history interview to foster more accurate reporting. J Am Diet Assoc. 2000;100:818-824.

Using Applied Conversation Analysis to Teach Novice Dietitians History Taking Skills

This paper presents an applied approach to conversation analysis in a setting comprising student dietitians and patients attending an outpatient clinic for heart disease and related disorders. In the first phase of the study interactions involving students deemed competent by supervisors were closely examined for distinctive configurations which could be attributed to satisfactory entry level practice. Reference was made to studies in similar settings and a particular emphasis was placed on the narrative structure for producing the diet history account. In the second phase a different group of students were taught history taking skills using findings and materials from the initial analysis. This focused on how to introduce the history and how to support its progression to achieve the outcomes required by the professional. In the final phase, interactions involving this second group of students were studied in detail to determine whether the interactional patterns taught were displayed in subsequent interactions. A further application of conversation analysis demonstrated that the second group of students co-constructed history phases which befitted the preferred narrative structure. These findings displayed the way in which conversation analysis could be applied in the teaching setting, bearing in mind that there is no escape from the situated order of professional interaction (nor indeed of the teaching context). The perspective presented of the interaction was one of 'professional medicine', that is it exposed issues of accountability and practical circumstances, when, in this case, novice dietitians 'do' nutrition counselling.

Applying conversation analysis to aphasia: clinical implications and analytic issues.

This paper explores the impact of linguistic impairments on conversational ability in aphasia using conversation analysis (CA). Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, an analysis of the distribution of turns at talk in three aphasic participants' conversations with a relative and with the researcher is described. Using extracts from the conversations for illustration, three major factors are proposed which influence the sharing of conversational turns: (1) shared knowledge of interlocutors, (2) the manifestations of linguistic impairments in conversation, and (3) individual discourse styles. Finally, the implications of the findings for remediation are considered.

The Problem of Solutions: To Cautionary Cases for Applying Conversation Analysis to Business

The Problem of Solutions: To Cautionary Cases for Applying Conversation Analysis to Business