Ongoing Talk Research Articles

Non-verbal resources and storytelling in second language classroom interaction

This study examines a single fragment of second language classroom interaction where learners jointly participate in the activity of telling a story. When a student in a French class at tertiary level recounts a personal anecdote, an intricate fabric of coordinated non-verbal resources and talk develops: elaborate hand gestures, head movements, facial expressions, and gaze by the teller, laughter by the audience, all these cues appear organically linked and embedded in the ongoing talk. The recount itself involves language that is challenging for these learners of French. However, the teller succeeds in completing her story coherently and in an orderly fashion. Rooted in the multidisciplinary field of gesture studies (McNeill 1992, 2000, 2005; Kendon and Müller 2001; Kendon 2004), and working with an approach framed by conversation analysis and context analysis (Streeck 2009), the article describes in detail the unfolding of this telling and demonstrates that, through an interplay of multimodal resources, participants engage in cooperative talk and learning. It also argues for the need to consider hand gesture and non-verbal behaviours as a central component of L2 classroom interaction.

“I'm Sorry + Naming the Offense”: A Format for Apologizing

The present article focuses on “I'm sorry + naming the offense”–formatted apologies occurring in phone calls in English. Apologies of this kind “emerge” and are oriented to as relevant actions when addressing an apologizable that is not the main business in ongoing talk. The sequential analysis of apologies and responses to apologies suggest that the format “I'm sorry + naming the offense” relates to either minimal/potential offenses or even no offenses, that is, actions for which the apologizer's accountability is not visibly at stake. Therefore, the format thus identified seems to accomplish actions other than (just) apologizing, such as expressing regret or minimizing a compliment, ultimately being a fruitful resource to reinforce social solidarity.

Astronauts and sugar beets: Young girls’ information seeking in family interactions

ABSTRACTThis paper presents preliminary results from a study examining young girls’ information seeking in family interactions. Video recordings of everyday interactions of families with girls between the ages of 3 and 6 years were coded for instances of information seeking, which were then analyzed using the methodology of conversation analysis. Results indicate that young girls’ information seeking typically occurs in response to ongoing talk and action, with few instances of information seeking unrelated to the locally immediate context of the family interactions.

Epistemic Brokering in the Interpreter-Mediated Medical Visit: Negotiating “Patient’s Side” and “Doctor’s Side” Knowledge

A significant dilemma involved in communication in medical care is the interactional negotiation of “doctor’s side” versus “patient’s side” knowledge—two divergent, yet indispensible, understandings of sickness. The present study examines the ways in which language interpreters, as active coparticipants in the clinical encounter, can engage with these emergent territories of knowledge by reformulating how information is presented in the ongoing talk. Although related to the strategies used in language and culture brokering, the practices described here for epistemic brokering are distinct in that they redesign action types and stances, as well as initiate sequences, in the service of aligning with and satisfying the social, communicative, and medical objectives that exist on each side of the mediated interaction. It is argued that epistemic brokering practices are one means through which interpreters can accomplish—on a turn-by-turn basis—their various roles of codiagnostician, gatekeeper, patient advocate, etc., which previous research has identified. Data are in American English and in Central American dialects of Spanish with English translation.

Leaning and recipient intervening questions in Mandarin conversation

In naturally occurring conversation, the recipient not only listens to the speaker, but also actively participates in the construction and negotiation of the ongoing talk. The recipient sometimes intervenes into the speaker's turn before it is brought to a possible completion, and one practice is initiating questions related to the ongoing talk. These questions have no direct contribution to the progress of the current project, and they impede the progressivity of the speaker's turn. While most research on recipient interventions focuses on the structure and function of the intervening sequences, this study examines the body movements involved in the production of the recipient interventions. Drawing on the methodology of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, this article explores the role of body movements in the production of recipient intervening questions in Mandarin face-to-face conversation. A recurrent pattern of body movement co-occurs with the recipient intervening questions. That is, the recipient leans toward the speaker when initiating the question and holds the leaning body until the response is provided. Leaning visually displays the recipient's orientation to his/her question as disjunctive and disaligned with the speaker's ongoing turn and activity in progress. Holding of the lean is a resource usable by the recipient to mobilize response to the intervening questions. This study shows that leaning is relevant to the organization of the recipient intervening question–answer sequences in Mandarin conversation.

Managing turn entry: The design of EI-prefaced turns in Mandarin conversation

Using the methodology of conversation analysis, this article examines how participants claim speakership in multiparty Mandarin conversation. Specifically, I describe the use of two previously unspecified practices involving turn-initial ei and demonstrate how their deployment figures in the management of turn transfer in everyday Mandarin interaction. I first show that even though orthographically Mandarin ei is always represented as a stand-alone unit in writing, separated from the sentence that follows, this particle is not always produced as its own prosodic unit in natural conversation and may or may not be latched onto the turn component it prefaces. I next show that the resulting two different turn formats routinely occur at differential sequential positions in my 35hours of data: Whereas speakers commonly deliver an ei-preface in an independent intonation contour when claiming speakership at a transition-relevance place, they tend to latch the ei-preface onto the turn component it preface if the attempt is made at a non-transition-relevance place. I argue that this recurrent orderly distribution should not be viewed as an outcome pre-determined by the sequence's structure, but rather as an embodiment of the would-be next speakers’ orientation to the fit between the incipient turn entry and the currently on-going talk.

Misunderstandings, communicative expectations and resources in illness narratives: insights from beyond interview transcripts.

Interactional misunderstandings in interviews are often glossed over in analysing narratives, so overlooking important clues about how interactants frame the interview discussion. Such misunderstandings will influence ongoing talk, shaping knowledge researchers produce about participants. We discuss whether interpretations of illness narratives may be enhanced if we analyse misunderstandings in conjunction with other contextually-available data not visible within interview transcripts. Using research interviews with people with asthma, we adopted linguistic-ethnographic methods to analyse the manifestation and specific consequences of interactional tensions and misunderstandings between interviewer and interviewee. Misunderstandings can indicate inequalities in communicative expectations and discursive resources available to interactants, which may lead to participants' talk being inappropriately identified as indicating a particular narrative. Incorporating ethnographic contextual features may make visible pertinent discourses not overtly evident within interviews. This may help theorize interview talk, like health and illness narratives, as manifesting within cycles of discourse that will intersect differently in each interaction.

English co-teaching and teacher collaboration: A micro-interactional perspective

Abstract English co-teaching by a native English-speaking teacher (NE) and a non-native English-speaking teacher (NN) is a common instructional practice in many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. This paper explores how two co-teachers collaborate during teacher-fronted interactions from a micro-interactional perspective, focusing on a Korean elementary school English classroom. Five video-taped lessons were analyzed to identify the participation patterns in which teacher collaboration occurs as the non-leading teacher intervenes in the ongoing talk. Teacher collaboration is realized in following two patterns: three-party interactions between the leading teacher, the non-leading teacher, and students in which the teachers jointly manage teacher talk or the floor, and two-party interactions between the leading and the non-leading teachers in which they offer and receive help in the face of trouble or to achieve an instructional goal. The sequential analysis of these diversions from the typical teacher-student, two-party interactional structure shows how the presence of two co-teachers is made salient and utilized in the work of teaching and learning. The findings indicate that teacher collaboration is not necessarily planned but rather occurs to meet unforeseen interactional and instructional needs.

Narrative, text and time: Telling the same story twice in the oral narrative reporting of 7/7

The question of whether it is possible to ‘tell the same story twice’ has been explored in work on conversational narratives, which has set out to understand the existence of some kind of ‘underlying semantic structure’ and ‘script’ (Polanyi, 1981). In conversational narratives, ‘local occasioning’ and ‘recipient design’ (Sacks et al., 1974) are factors that determine the form and function of the story. Here, ongoing talk frames the narrative while other participants provide a ready made audience, all of which, form part of the storytelling process. What happens, however, when a survivor of 7/7 (the date in 2005 of the co-ordinated terrorist bomb attacks on the London transport system in the morning rush hour, which killed 52 and injured hundreds of people), whose personal narrative was reported globally on the day of the event, is again interviewed two and a half years later for their experience of that morning? Is the ‘same story’ retold? Specifically, how far does the latest story replicate the experience and events of the first and which of the prototypical features of a personal narrative – at the level of both the macrostructure and microstructure – remain constant? By comparing both interviews and using Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) narrative framework as the central model for analysis, it is possible to see whether events within the complicating action or features of evaluation remain the most memorable, that is, they are recalled in the second telling as important aspects of the experience, and may be seen to be core narrative categories. While findings show that both narratives are comparable in form, a closer investigation finds compelling differences as well as unexpected linguistic choices. Not only has the second narrative become informed by other, external narratives to become part of a broader, mediated narrative but various discourse strategies of ‘dissociation’ in both interviews have resulted in a retelling of a traumatic experience that appears to have features of an eye witness report rather than a personal narrative. Moreover, this blurring of two distinct genres of storytelling provides a true insight of how the narrator positions himself inside this terrible experience.

Learning English Through Social Interaction: The Case of Big Brother 2006, Finland

ABSTRACTIn line with recent Conversation Analytic work on language learning as situated practice, this article investigates how interactants can create language learning opportunities for themselves and others in and through social interaction. The study shows how the participants of Big Brother Finland, a reality TV show, whose main communication is in Finnish, take up resources provided by English and use them for learning in their interaction. This interaction is characterized by an orientation to both the local context and the television audience, a mixture of activity types and translanguaging. It focuses on one of the participants who explicitly evaluates his own proficiency in English as limited, and demonstrates how English nevertheless constitutes a motivated choice for him that he integrates into his and the other Big Brother housemates' talk and interaction. Analysis shows how the participant actively topicalizes English not only to understand the ongoing talk, but also to serve a range of social and symbolic purposes, for example, for inviting and engaging in participation, building expert–novice participant roles, and creating entertainment and humor. In this fashion the study depicts diverging interactional environments where learning opportunities are created and shows how these are employed by the participants.

“…because I’m just a stupid woman from an ngo”: Interviews and the interplay between constructions of gender and professional identity

Over the last decade, using interviews to analyse identity construction has been gaining in popularity (de Fina 2003; Johnson 2006; Baynham 2011) and, given this interest, analysing identities has become a much debated issue that is being approached from various angles. Regarding interviews as interaction between the interviewee and interviewer, and stories in the interviews as emerging from interactional dynamics (de Fina 2009), this paper draws attention to the emergence of identity at different levels. First, identities emerge at the level of the interview narrative, which is ongoing talk as it evolves in real time and consists of reporting facts, giving opinions on, and explaining aspects of, various topics to the interviewer. Second, identities emerge in stories which are included in the ongoing talk. Stories refer to actions in the past, usually told in chronological order. In contrast to interview narratives which are initiated by the interviewer, stories in interviews are primarily instigated by the interviewees to further support their identity co-construction in the interview setting. The interview setting is thus the third level of identity construction in interviews. By applying the framework of identities occurring at different levels in interviews and Positioning Theory (Harré and van Langenhove 1999), this paper analyses the construction of professional gender identities in the workplace, the interplay between these identities, and the dependence of these constructions on the ‘interview as context’. The stories themselves reveal how, in the workplace, there may be a conflict between professional and gender identities. More specifically such stories make visible the way in which interviewees construct their professional identities in order to resist gender identities that are projected onto them.

Collaborative interaction in turn-taking: a comparative study of European bilingual (CLIL) and mainstream (MS) foreign language learners in early secondary education

This paper explores the emergence of collaborative interaction among early secondary learners in bilingual sections at state schools in Andalusia. These sections are organised in line with a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach. By transcribing and then analysing data from oral interviews conducted with randomly selected pairs of CLIL learners and mainstream (MS) peers, the article compares and discusses the quantity and quality of collaboration evidenced in turn-taking patterns. In doing so it also proposes a pragmatic, participant-based approach to the initial classification of turns, prior to more functionally aligned analysis. Four initial turn types are identified in the data but while all four obviously contribute to the overall ongoing talk, only two are deemed inherently collaborative. These are embedded turns, where one speaker contributes to another speaker's main turn, and cooperative turns, where two or more speakers jointly construct the message. Once identified, each of these turn types was examined for patterns of functional use. The research finds that the CLIL learners are participating both more frequently and more effectively in collaborative turns than their MS counterparts. In closing we briefly discuss some of the implications of this finding.

Framing, stance, and affect in Korean metalinguistic discourse

Studies on language and affect have identified displays of emotions and feelings as important means through which speakers negotiate their social relations and cultural positions. Extending the findings of those studies, this paper discusses how affect must be seen as an important building block for framing, a resource that allows participants to construct frames that have specific grounding in identifiable social meaning. I make this point by illustrating how interactional management of affect contributes to the constitution of frames via the work of stancetaking, based on a discussion of several examples from a specific discursive context - Koreans’ metalinguistic talk about English. While Koreans are commonly known to show much ‘anxiety’ or ‘uneasiness’ about their own English language skills, I demonstrate that such display of affect may be understood as part of an interactional frame for speaking (about) English that allows speakers to position themselves in relation to English and to each other in a culturally and socially appropriate way. The analysis shows that the semiotic resources that speakers employ in their affective displays allow participants to negotiate specific stances that they should take, and to jointly construct a frame for interpreting the interactional import of the ongoing talk.

Insertion Repair

Insertion repair is a practice in which speakers halt their talk-in-progress to go back and add something else into the turn before resuming (e.g., inserting “blind” in “this girl's fixed up on a da— a blind date”). This article provides the first systematic examination of the technology of insertion repair, based on an analysis of more than 500 instances. We first overview the practice of insertion repair; then examine how the inserted material modifies the ongoing talk. By far the most common modification is specifying: i.e., the inserted material modifies an original reference formulation so as to specify either a unique referent or a particular type of referent. A second common modification is intensifying: i.e., the inserted material modifies the original formulation so as to strengthen it. Other—much less common—modifications are describing, adjusting, and adding. Finally, we consider the relevance of our findings for conversation analytic work on repair, referring, and the relationships between grammar and action and different orders of action.

Attending to What the Other is Saying: Korean EFL Learners’ Use of Backchannels in Conversation

Following conversation analytic procedures, this study examines the use of backchannels in conversations between Korean English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners to identify the patterns and functions found in the interactional practices. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the use of the backchannel tokens yes, yeah, uh huh, and mm hm occurring in turn-intial positions. The results show the learners’ use of backchannels coincides with performances found in talk of native speakers, yet at the same time, discloses distinct aspects arising from the not-yet-competent status as second language (L2) learners. The learners employed the tokens yes, yeah, uh huh, and mm hm as continuers to signal the listener's attention and assure the speaker of the speakership. In particular, yeah was used for systematically gaining speakership in ongoing talk. Contrastingly, the learners were also found to use first language (L1) vocalic forms as backchannels in their talk applying them in a disfluent manner for speakership incipiency. Such behaviors seem to arise from unfamiliarity with the prosodic features of the target language, English. The findings provide a closer understanding of Korean English learners' backchannel behaviors and of L2 interactional practices.

Utterance as a tool for change agents: implications based on Bakhtin

Purpose – This paper proposes a perspective of change agency that builds on the regenerative power of language achieved through ongoing talk and conversations associated with managing change. It seeks to elaborate on the role of speech in helping one to see change as a continuous stream of socially constructed utterances.Design/methodology/approach – Configurations have played a central role in determining the extent of fit or misfit between entities – a prelude for steering change and modes of intervention. Much of the reliance on the notion of fit or misfit between entities has been largely driven by conceptions of organizations as consisting of objective entities. But change is not separate from its own construction; conduct of change is deeply rooted in meanings people attach to events. The paper develops a constructionist perspective of change agency; one that builds on the role of language in constructing change.Findings – The social construction of meaning remains crucial for building connections w...

Pro-Forms as Projective Devices in Interaction

Cataphoric pronouns have been characterized as being co-referential with a word that comes later. Considering that talk is produced in real time, with little benefit of knowing what is yet to come, participants understand cataphoric pro-forms to be projecting more talk. Projection is a crucial interactive resource, as it enables speakers to align with the ongoing talk and to initiate subsequent contributions in a timely manner. The study looks at how Estonian pro-forms are systematically used to project either a word (phrase) or a clause in interaction. The patterns discussed are not universal and it will be suggested that projecting word (phrases) with pro-forms is a characteristic of a nonprepositional language with no articles, and that pro-form projection can be especially useful in a free word order language. As many pro-forms do not end up with a co-referential word, projection provides a better account of their function. The article underlines the necessity of studying grammar as a temporal phenomenon.

Examining two explicit formulations in university discourse

A formulation is a type of metapragmatic utterance that enables participants to comment on some segment of the ongoing talk and to negotiate meaning within an interaction. Formulations have often been investigated in therapeutic and counseling interactions, but little is known about the use of formulations in other institutional settings. Broadening the scope of inquiry to higher education, the present study explored the distributions, functions, and responses to two types of explicit formulations (those prefaced by what you're saying is and are you saying that) in university discourse. Using MICASE as a source of data, the study focused on the two explicit formulations in different types of university speech activities (e.g., lectures, study groups, research labs). The study's findings indicate that in higher education — just as in therapeutic contexts — the production of formulations is highly constrained by participants' institutional roles and their relative power. This article further illustrates the ways in which formulations can serve as didactic tools in educational contexts. Finally, the article concludes by highlighting potential interactions between formulation frames, response types, and participant structures.

Exposed and embedded corrections in aphasia therapy: issues of voice and identity

Because communication after the onset of aphasia can be fraught with errors, therapist corrections are pervasive in therapy for aphasia. Although corrections are designed to improve the accuracy of communication, some corrections can have social and emotional consequences during interactions. That is, exposure of errors can potentially silence the 'voice' of a speaker by orienting to an utterance as unacceptable. Although corrections can marginalize speakers with aphasia, the practice has not been widely investigated. A qualitative study of corrections during aphasia therapy was undertaken to describe corrections in therapy, identify patterns of occurrence, and develop hypotheses regarding the potential effects of corrections. Videotapes of six individual and five group aphasia therapy sessions were analysed. Sequences consistent with a definition of a therapist 'correction' were identified. Corrections were defined as instances when the therapist offered a 'fix' for a perceived error in the client's talk even though the intent was apparent. Two categories of correction were identified and were consistent with Jefferson's (1987) descriptions of exposed and embedded corrections. Exposed corrections involved explicit correcting by the therapist, while embedded corrections occurred implicitly within the ongoing talk. Patterns of occurrence appeared consistent with philosophical orientations of therapy sessions. Exposed corrections were more prevalent in sessions focusing on repairing deficits, while embedded corrections were prevalent in sessions focusing on natural communication events (e.g. conversation). In addition, exposed corrections were sometimes used when client offerings were plausible or appropriate, but were inconsistent with therapist expectations. The observation that some instances of exposed corrections effectively silenced the voice or self-expression of the person with aphasia has significant implications for outcomes from aphasia therapy. By focusing on accurate productions versus communicative intents, therapy runs the risk of reducing self-esteem and communicative confidence, as well as reinforcing a sense of 'helplessness' and disempowerment among people with aphasia. The results suggest that clinicians should carefully calibrate the use of exposed and embedded corrections to balance linguistic and psychosocial goals.

“Why Do You Like This Page So Much?”

Based on the results of a qualitative study that examined the role of talk during literacy events in a preschool classroom, this article describes ongoing talk among 4-year old children during three reading activities: reading informational text; narrating a story; and browsing over photos. The reading activities in which preschool children were engaged in talk were examined using Halliday’s (1978) model of the context of a situation. The article confirms that talk and meanings expressed are affected by what is taking place (field), who is talking (tenor) and what part language is playing (mode). This research reveals the potential of child-to-child conversations; at the same time, revealing spaces or gaps in children’s literacy understanding that can be addressed by peer and adult support. The results provide justification for further investigation of the potential of talk in determining children’s emerging understanding of reading.