Conversation Analysis

Name Matric Number

Khoyriyah Masoh M20171001014
Sumaiyah Mapa M20171001013
Alissa Dania bt Roslee M20171000840
Kevin Raj A/L Savari Nathan M20171000753
 Definition
"Conversation analysis (CA) is an
approach within the social sciences
that aims to describe, analyze and
understand talk as a basic and
constitutive feature of human social
life.
- Sidnell (2010)
 Simpler words?
Conversation analysis (CA) is a
method for investigating the
structure and process of social
interaction between humans.

OR

the study of the talk produced in

ordinary human interactions.
Elements in Conversation
Analysis
Adjacency pairs
Turn - taking
Repairs
Sequences
Feedback
Opening and closing
Article Review
 Article 1 :
Applying a Conversation Analysis to
Teaching Learners Oral English
Skills
Oral language teaching demands a variety
of concerns, such as the features of spoken
language compared with written language.
People learn language primarily for
communication with others.
The participants in communication involve
speakers and audience.
Communication happens in social life and it
takes place in a certain situation example
coffee bar, office or classroom
 We cannot speak without the
consideration of the social and cultural
context, how should oral language skills
be taught with regard to the social and
cultural context
Conversation Analysis theory is
elaborated in terms of adjacency pairs,
turn-taking, repairs, sequences,
openings and closings, and feedback.
CA is of much importance in fostering
learners sociolinguistic competence,
linguistic competence, discourse
competence and strategic competence.
 The Value of Conversation
Analysis in Teaching Oral Skills
By investigating
the transcriptions of native or non-native
speakers spoken data, learners can learn
how to organize a conversation
appropriately with regards to the socio-
cultural factors, hence foster the
sociolinguistic competence.
the sequences of a conversation, learners
can learn how to co-construct a coherent
discourse that functions hence foster
their discourse competence.
 By examining
the aspects of organizing a
conversation, learners can learn how
to make choices from target language
resources to speak accurately, hence
foster their linguistic (or grammatical)
competence.
the way people take turns, hold turns,
respond, open and close a
conversation, learners are able to
communicate effectively, hence
develop their strategic competence.
 Article 2:
Conversational Analysis of Turn taking
Behavior and Gender Differences in
Multimodal Conversation
The data was collected from 3 radio
programs which is the male to male
conversation program (3 episodes, 20
minutes each 60 minutes recording from
each medium)
students from linguistics department on the
same pattern as taken of radio. Overall.
In order to find out which one of the both
genders is dominant in the conversation
and which one influence more in
conversation.
Turn taking is the process by which people
in conversation decide who will to speak next.
There are three possibilities involved in the
arrangement and organization turn taking
system.
Firstly, the current speakers may self-select
and continue speaking.

Secondly, the current speaker may select

the next speaker.

thirdly, the current speaker may select

another speaker instead of selecting the
next speaker.
Example :

1. The current speaker A selects the next

speaker B, then B has the opportunity to
speak and avail the turn.

2. If A selects another speaker C instead of B

then C begins to speak.

3. There is also possibility of third situation

that A current speaker does not give chance
to other speaker to speak and hold the floor
of conversation
Turn taking, that tells who speak, what
and when is make people know the turn.

Victoria De Francisco found that females

have more curiosity to take turn in
conversation while men stick to their
own point, remain silent, and rejected
the offer of turn taking.
 shows mean turn taking rates in three
conversational pairs (MM, FF and MF) in
three mediums (radio, TV. and casual
conversation.
While, mean turns are given on vertical
axis. The graph shows that there is no
difference in male to male and female to
female turn taking rates in all three
mediums. However, there is statistically
significant difference in male to female
turn taking rates in all three mediums.
Surprisingly, females took more turns
than males in all three mediums
 Article 3:
CONCEPTUALISING CLASSROOM
INTERACTIONAL COMPETENCE
USING
CONVERSATION ANALYTIC METHOD
STEVE WALSH
2012
 Definitions
describe, analyse, and understand
talk as a basic and constitutive feature
of human social life (Sidnell, 2010,
p.1)

a concept which lies at the heart of

most classroom communication,
where students are engaged in a
constant process of trying to make
sense of each other, negotiate
meanings, assist and query, support,
clarify and so on.
Data Collection
 Turn Taking
Turn taking can be clearly seen in lesson
one all the students manage the turn-
taking very well. Turn taking is
orchestrated by the teachers mainly but
learners share the same responsibility to
manage their own turn taking in line
with hat is required by the teacher.

Turn taking comes in a sequence or

pattern during a conversation between
two or more speakers and it is the bread
butter of a conversation.
 Overlapping
overlaps and interruptions occur
frequently, but they are supportive
and designed to ensure that the
interaction flows smoothly.

In the first lesson a lot of overlapping

occurs signal to a speaker that she
has been understood, that the
channels are open and that the
communication is working well
 Pause
Is a space in the interaction to
allow learners to take a turn-at-
talk.

In lesson 2 if the teacher pauses

after every questions because
allows thinking or rehearsal time
enabling learners to formulate a
response
(see lines 44 and 46 where a teacher pause is
followed by a learner pause).
 Adjacency Pairs
An adjacency pair is a unit of
conversation that contains an
exchange of one turn each by two
speakers. The turns are functionally
related to each other in such a
fashion that the first turn requires a
certain type or range of types of
second turn.
In lesson 3 the student answered the
question posed by the teacher lines 2,
4, 6, 8.
 Article 4:
Investigating The Communicativeness
Of Classroom Teacher-student
Interactions From A Conversation
Analysis Perspective

Linglan Xiao
2014
 Definition
A conversation analysis is a set of
methods for working with audio and
video recordings of talk and social
interaction (Sidnell, 2010).

A method for investigating the

structure and process of social
interaction between humans that
focuses primarily on talk, but
integrates also the nonverbal aspects
of interaction (Perakyla, n.d).
 Research Question
What are the characteristics of ___________ organization in 3 EFL
classroom teacher-student interactions in 3 different contexts?

How do these classroom teacher-student interactions in these 3 classes

relate to the theory of Communicative Language Teaching?
Data Collection
 Turn-Taking
Turn-taking organization in Lesson 1
mainly follows a rigid pattern of
teachers initiation of a turn by asking
a question and students taking turns
mainly as a result of teachers
nomination, then teachers
evaluation of students answers.
Turn-taking system is quite simple
and neat. The responsibility for
managing the turn-taking to the
largest extent lies with the teacher.
 Sequence
Teacher-explanation and student-echo
adjacency pair
 Repair

In Line 14, L14 has trouble in finding the right word to express
her meaning. Communication breaks down at this point.
In Line 3, the teacher conducts a teacher-initiated teacher
repair to repair the trouble in the flow of interaction by
completing L14s utterance with an appropriate expression.
By repeating it, an uptake of repaired item is displayed by L14.
This is a successful repair.
 Advantages of CA
Focuses on micro-level
conversation (Sack, 1991)
Provide detailed and true data
(Silverman, 1998)
Precision, which can be used to
identify nuances
(expression/sound) that might
have otherwise been overlooked.
(Firth, 2014)
 Disadvantages of CA
Time consuming to analyse large
amount of data (May, 2004)
Making a possible
misinterpretation out of context
(Have, 2007)
 Conclusion
In conclusion, conversation analysis is study of
the structure and process of social interaction
between human, including turn taking,
repairs, sequence, feedback and adjacency to
organize the good conversation in daily life.