Conversation Analytic Research Research Articles

Applying conversation analysis to classroom interactions: students’ ‘oh’-prefaced utterances and the interactional management of explanations

ABSTRACT This study serves as an example of Conversation Analytic (CA) research with a focus on the interactional management of learning in classroom interactions, while simultaneously illustrating the several steps and procedures used for conducting these analyses. In this case, the method of CA is used to study students’ ‘oh’-prefaced utterances in one-to-one classroom interactions centred around explanations. The interactions are studied from the participants’ perspective by means of a turn-by-turn analysis of the selected fragments on the basis of video recordings and detailed transcripts, as is common practice in CA. This study aligns with previous CA research focusing on the details of classroom interaction relating to students’ learning processes. The results of the close analysis of the data provide insight into the orientation teachers and students show to interactionally exhibited knowledge displays in relation to the entire explanation activity they are involved in. This detailed analysis of one-to-one explanation interactions in secondary school classrooms provides insight into students’ learning processes as well as into the accompanying teacher practices.

Computer vision in situ

Background: This article shows a visually impaired person (VIP) trying to locate products while shopping using the commercially available computer vision device Orcam. Method: Based on ethnomethodological conversation analysis and perspectives on materiality and agency from a post-praxiological position, the study shows, through detailed analysis of transcribed video excerpts, the observable sense-making practices related to this technology. Results: The study shows the VIP and researcher-participants exploring what the device can and cannot do, and how the local body–object–environment relations need to be organized to make the device scan. The study shows the value of applying a post-praxiological approach to understanding socio-material practices. It also introduces the ‘video-based contextual inquiry’ method as a form of researcher engagement in producing the situation and the data collection. Discussion/conclusion: The article provides two novel contributions: (1) to the field of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis research, with a critical reflection on semi-experimental data collection and the role of the researcher, the materials, and the distribution of agency; and (2) to the field of impairment and disability studies, with insights on locally organized body–object–environment relations and the design of artifacts for computer vision recognition technology.

Can AI explain AI? Interactive co-construction of explanations among human and artificial agents

This study investigates the potential of using advanced conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to help people understand complex AI systems. In line with conversation-analytic research, we view the participatory role of AI as dynamically unfolding in a situation rather than being predetermined by its architecture. To study user sensemaking of intransparent AI systems, we set up a naturalistic encounter between human participants and two AI systems developed in-house: a reinforcement learning simulation and a GPT-4-based explainer chatbot. Our results reveal that an explainer-AI only truly functions as such when participants actively engage with it as a co-constructive agent. Both the interface’s spatial configuration and the asynchronous temporal nature of the explainer AI – combined with the users’ presuppositions about its role – contribute to the decision whether to treat the AI as a dialogical co-participant in the interaction. Participants establish evidentiality conventions and sensemaking procedures that may diverge from a system’s intended design or function.

Worked examples for peer interaction: a feedback and learning resource

Abstract Feedback penetrates many walks of our lives, and its importance in L2 teaching and assessment is well recognised. However, while corrective feedback and writing feedback have been the focus of much L2 research and classroom practice, there seems relatively little attention to feedback on spoken interactional skills. Concomitantly, translating research on interactional competence (IC) to classroom practice has been a glacial process. Aiming at supporting teachers in providing assessment feedback and teaching IC in the classroom, this article introduces worked examples of peer interactions as a feedback and learning resource. Adopting a procedure used in conversation analytic (CA) research, the worked examples are designed to guide learners to notice and understand IC features in context, at a less cognitively demanding pace for processing, and promote learners’ active engagement with the feedback or teaching focus. The article concludes with suggestions for teachers to develop similar resources for their local contexts.

Halt for Speaking

Conversation analytic (CA) research on multimodality has mostly focused on the “movement” rather than the “freezing” of such movement, except for a small body of work on gesture holds mostly in sign language and several European languages. Based on two large corpora of video-recorded family interactions and adult ESL classroom interactions in American English, this conversation analytic study demonstrates how halts of eating and drinking are carefully configured to preserve contiguity by facilitating completion and repair. Findings expand our understanding of the interdependence between multimodality and sequence organization within the larger context of managing multiactivity and materiality.

Making new technology understandable through multimodal orientations: A digital exercise stick in customer training interaction

With a variety of smart technologies on the market, health technologies have become an increasingly everyday phenomenon. This paper focuses on customer training in the use of a new technological device, a digital mobility stick, which is an exercise stick with a built-in haptic component. It can be used as a measuring and training tool to analyze the body’s ability to balance, bend, and rotate and to guide the trajectory of one’s exercise movements. We focus on the mobility stick as a training tool, investigating how the haptic technology is introduced to the customer in instructional interaction, and what roles the technology obtains in the process. The paper uses video-recorded customer training interaction data from a health technology company. It draws on multimodal conversation analytic research on instructions and instructed actions, objects, technologies, and touch in interaction. We show that the company representative’s specific orientation to the mobility stick was consequential to the instructed actions of the customers and their learning. The analyzed cases also illustrate that the mobility stick gained different roles in the interaction, ranging from a technological and sensorial object to a technology representing information to an active participant in interaction guiding human action. The study thus contributes to our understanding of the multimodality of instructional interaction and the potentially varied roles of technology in such interaction.

“Atypical Interactions” in Healthcare: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research, with Reflections on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

ABSTRACT Our state-of-the-art review examines conversation-analytic (CA) research on healthcare encounters in which the patient has a disability that can affect their communication, using the lens of the social relational model of disability. We report findings via the following themes: where (and why) interactional challenges arise, practitioner barriers and facilitators to effective communication, how behaviors interpreted medically as symptoms can be understood as interactional competencies, and understanding the role of companion. We reflect on equity, diversity, and inclusion in CA research, arguing that labeling interactions as “atypical” can lead to assumptions that findings are circumscribed and have no wider applicability. Existing research has focused on specialist settings created for people with one particular condition, overlooking their healthcare interactions with other healthcare services. We argue that CA research on healthcare and beyond should include a more diverse range of interactants and also discuss why. Data in examples are in multiple languages.

Communication in Outpatient Secondary Care: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research

ABSTRACT Our review highlights state-of-the-art conversation analytic (CA) research within adult outpatient secondary care settings and how this research has been applied to clinical practice, provides reflections, and considers fruitful areas for future research. Findings from 128 articles were synthesized according to five clinical activities that have been the focus of CA research thus far: (1) information gathering and patients’ descriptions of their symptoms/condition; (2) information delivery, including test results and diagnosis; (3) decision making about goals, treatment, and future care; (4) interacting about sensitive issues, including patients’ emotions and psychosocial concerns; and (5) managing the interactional role of companions accompanying patients in adult outpatient secondary care appointments. Research in these settings has been used in healthcare policy/guidelines and designing training interventions for clinical practice. Within future CA research in outpatient secondary care, there is scope for more longitudinal studies and further exploring interactions in multidisciplinary care. Data examples are in multiple languages.

Communication in Primary Healthcare: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research

ABSTRACT We report the first state-of-the-art review of conversation-analytic (CA) research on communication in primary healthcare. We conducted a systematic search across multiple bibliographic databases and specialist sources and employed backward and forward citation tracking. We included 177 empirical studies spanning four decades of research and 16 different countries/health systems, with data in 17 languages. The majority of studies originated in United States and United Kingdom and focused on medical visits between physicians and adult patients. We generated three broad research themes in order to synthesize the study findings: managing agendas, managing participation, and managing authority. We characterize the state-of-the-art for each theme, illustrating the progression of the work and making comparisons across different languages and health systems, where possible. We consider practical applications of the findings, reflect on the state of current knowledge, and suggest some directions for future research. Data reported are in multiple languages.

Communication in Palliative Care and About End of Life: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research in Healthcare

ABSTRACT I review conversation analytic research on healthcare interactions in palliative care, and end-of-life preferences and plans conversations in other settings. The review process drew on established systematic review methods. Twenty-two publications were included. Key themes were initiating and managing the topics of dying, of prognosis, and of advance care planning, and interactionally managing emotions. There is substantial, cumulative evidence about patterns and practices for initiating sensitive conversations, managing emotions, and indirectly referring to death. Two of 22 studies examined interactional consequences of companions accompanying patients, and two examined pain assessment. Current evidence is restricted: 21 of 22 studies were in secondary/tertiary care and all were in high-income countries, and most involved specialist physicians. Nevertheless, findings contribute to conversation analytic scholarship on delicacy, emotion in interaction, and indirect reference. Healthcare applications include contributions to training in communicating about sensitive topics and to policy on talking about dying. Data presented are in British English, U.S. English, Canadian English, Swiss-French, and Japanese.

Communication in Pediatric Healthcare: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review of Conversation-Analytic Research

ABSTRACT Communication is central to pediatric care. Conversation analytic (CA) studies of recorded naturally occurring pediatric interactions contribute distinctive understandings; however, to date there has been no detailed review of CA’s unique contributions. We searched Medline, PsychINFO, Sciencedirect, Google Scholar, and the EM/CA Wiki database, identifying 74 empirical articles across diverse areas of pediatrics. Our state-of-the-art review highlights CA of clinician and caregiver conversations about a child patient, in addition to those involving the child. The findings have the potential to enhance clinical practice by illuminating how healthcare tasks are practically accomplished and enrich our knowledge of children’s participation in consultations by revealing the mechanisms that constrain and enable their involvement. We call for better synthesis of findings with broader CA literature (e.g., nonclinical child interactions, adult triadic clinical encounters, and fundamental knowledge of social interaction). We appeal for increased support for scholarly work in non-Western settings, and emphasize scope for applied initiatives. The data reported are in multiple languages.

How Do Students Receive Help from Teachers? Initiating Assistance in Small Group Classroom Interactions

Abstract How do teachers decide when and how to help their students if not explicitly asked to do so? Based on conversation analysis of 14 h of video-recorded small group interactions in secondary schools, we discovered that teachers and students orient to subtle actions built through embodied conduct, to decide whether or not assistance is needed. We also found that problem-solving can be initiated without disturbing students’ progress and that the teachers’ movement creates opportunities for students to recruit their assistance in small group classroom interaction. The study contributes to conversation analytic and educational research by showing that embodiment is crucial for receiving and offering assistance in classrooms. In addition, this article provides insights into how experienced teachers manage the subtle and negotiated aspects of supporting learning in classrooms, an important and recurring part of classroom management that has received little attention in previous research.

Using conversation analysis to identify unresponsiveness in peer interactions in inclusive groups

Background: Previous research regarding unresponsiveness in peer interaction, including participants on the autism spectrum (AS), is mainly based on predefined categorizations of unresponsiveness; thus, there is a need for conversation analytic research to examine unresponsiveness from participants’ perspectives. Method: Multimodal conversation analysis (CA) was applied to examine unresponsiveness in task-focused multiparty peer interactions of an inclusive group, including one participant on the AS. Results: The results showed that it was not meaningful to analyze unresponsiveness in situations where there was no (aligning) response and all participants’ orientations revealed that a response was (not) needed. Instead, participants’ discrepant orientations to the response relevance made unresponsiveness a meaningful issue for participants to negotiate. Discussion/conclusion: The CA approach can be useful for examining unresponsiveness accurately. The combination of both the speaker and recipient(s) orientations to response relevance can be used as a conceptual tool to identify unresponsiveness when it is relevant for the participants.

Conversation analysis, institutions, and rituals.

By relating conversation analysis (CA), in particular CA research on institutional interaction to such research traditions as sociological institutionalism, new materialism, and ritual theory, the article illustrates how CA scholarship can contribute to macrosociological theorizing. This argument is illustrated by how national parliaments are organized as institutions. The main point made in the article is that occasions of what CA calls institutional interaction should be considered as rituals. Although those occasions are scripted ceremonial performances wherein social pressure, material conditions, or avoidance of punishment make actors conform, they still play a role in constituting social order by making participants honor the rules and principles codified in an organization's frontstage events. The article also underlines that organizational arrangements do not determine what actors can say or do, but they impose limits and conditions on people's conduct. Finally, the paper suggests that it is through such arrangements of institutional interaction that social structure is created, maintained, and naturalized.

Reporting racism in broadcast interview

AbstractThis study examines invited reports of racism in broadcast interviews. Guided by discursive psychology (DP) and conversation analysis (CA), the investigation focuses on the interactional moments wherein the interviewee (is invited to) describe a racist incident. Expanding existing DP and CA research on complaints of racism, this analysis shows how reported speech is treated by speakers as an indispensable device in reproducing the incident and providing evidence for the racism reported. This investigation provides further evidence for how speakers treat reporting racism as a sensitive business. This is reflected in the interviewee's accounts as they begin by describing the circumstance of the incident, and the interviewer's collaboration in co‐constructing the interviewee's accounts and co‐managing the trajectory of the interview. Overall, the analysis spotlights how an auspicious environment for victims to talk about their experiences of racism is created and fostered at both institutional and interactional levels.

Pronunciation, Grammar, and Vocabulary Explanations in Pedagogical Interaction

This article reviews conversation analytic research on explanations in pedagogical interaction, particularly in language learning classrooms. In reviewing this literature, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive account of what is interactionally involved when giving pedagogical explanations so that future research investigating the effectiveness of these kinds of explanations can be appropriately measured. The paper first discusses characteristics of explanation as interactional phenomena, namely that they are sequentially organized, either planned or unplanned, and either monologically or dialogically organized. Then, the paper details how explanations in three particular linguistic domains (i.e., pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary) are accomplished interactionally. In doing so, this paper highlights similarities and differences across linguistic domains that are frequently found in language learning classrooms. The paper ends by identifying patterns across pedagogical explanations and by suggesting directions for future research.

Directives to read for self-correction in peer-tutoring consultations for L2 writing

This study examines tutor-initiated error-correction sequences in one-to-one consultations for second language (L2) writing. Using conversation analysis (CA), the paper presents three examples illustrating what the tutor does to help tutees come up with solutions to grammar problems in their essays. The detailed analysis demonstrates how the tutor's directives to read in order to find and solve an L2 grammar issue, along with the tutees’ alignment, create opportunities for the tutees to self-correct. The study explores: (1) how the tutor's directive to read leads a tutee to self-correct; (2) how the tutor manages a tutee's resistance to a directive to read and trouble display through “narrowed-down support”; and (3) how the tutor manages a tutee's trouble display through multiple directives to read. The findings suggest pedagogically useful practices, and contribute to CA research on L2 writing consultations in general and the understanding of tutor-initiated error-correction sequences specifically.

A multimodal perspective on adult learners’ vocabulary explanations in the beginner-level L2 classroom

ABSTRACT Following the current research in conversation analysis in the field of second language (L2) learning, the present study demonstrates that beginner-level adult learners actively contribute to vocabulary explanation sequences by mobilising multimodal resources including depictive gestures, gaze, and short verbal turns. The data consist of video-recordings of whole-class interactions in a beginner-level L2 French classroom for adults with migrant backgrounds. The analysis shows how the depictive gestures deployed by learners serve either to represent concrete words, directly depicting the target item, or, combined with a short verbal explanation, to make more abstract concepts visible by contextualising the target word and associating it with a larger context of use. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the functioning of vocabulary explanations in the L2 classroom and, in particular, of the specific participatory dynamics in language classes for beginner-level adult learners.

The Priority Structure behind Overlap of Multi-Person Conversation

This article explores the priority structure underlying overlapping speech in multi-person conversations. While most research on overlapping talk has focused on resolution and management, there remains a gap in understanding multi-party conversations. Drawing on a self-collected corpus of dialogue materials, the author analyzes existing data to examine the influence of underlying priority structures on overlapping phenomena. By delving into the observable implicit communicative structure and regular characteristics, this study sheds light on the prioritization dynamics in multi-person conversations. The findings contribute to conversation analysis research and enhance our comprehension of the complexities involved in managing overlaps in communication.

Differentiating between epileptic and functional/dissociative seizures using semantic content analysis of transcripts of routine clinic consultations

The common causes of Transient Loss of Consciousness (TLOC) are syncope, epilepsy, and functional/dissociative seizures (FDS). Simple, questionnaire-based decision-making tools for non-specialists who may have to deal with TLOC (such as clinicians working in primary or emergency care) reliably differentiate between patients who have experienced syncope and those who have had one or more seizures but are more limited in their ability to differentiate between epileptic seizures and FDS. Previous conversation analysis research has demonstrated that qualitative expert analysis of how people talk to clinicians about their seizures can help distinguish between these two TLOC causes. This paper investigates whether automated language analysis - using semantic categories measured by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) toolkit - can contribute to the distinction between epilepsy and FDS. Using patient-only talk manually transcribed from recordings of 58 routine doctor-patient clinic interactions, we compared the word frequencies for 21 semantic categories and explored the predictive performance of these categories using 5 different machine learning algorithms. Machine learning algorithms trained using the chosen semantic categories and leave-one-out cross-validation were able to predict the diagnosis with an accuracy of up to 81%. The results of this proof of principle study suggest that the analysis of semantic variables in seizure descriptions could improve clinical decision tools for patients presenting with TLOC.