Cover not available
Article published In:
Spoken Interaction Studies in Australia
Edited by Rod Gardner
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Series S 11] 1994
► pp. 97–118

Conversation analysis

Some thoughts on its applicability to applied linguistics

| University of Melbourne

The first part of this paper presents the view that ordinary conversation is the most basic form of talk, and that Conversation Analysis (CA) in the ethnomethodological tradition, whilst widely known in Australian applied linguistics, has been very little used here as a set of research tools. The distinctiveness of the CA approach is presented, and it is argued that CA has the potential to make a more substantial contribution to applied linguistic research than it has hitherto. Second, the paper considers how some basic CA research – into receipt tokens such as mm, yeah, oh and others in Australian English – might be applied to a language teaching, and specifically into the development of teaching materials in an adult ESL context. It is argued that CA has the potential for wider application in Australian applied linguistics alongside some of the more widespread and better known qualitative research methods.

Published online: 1 January 1994
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aralss.11.05gar
References
Adelsward, V., Aronsson, K., Jonsson, L. and Linell, P.
(1987) The unequal distribution of interactional space: dominance and control in courtroom interaction. Text 71:313–346. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, J. M. and Drew, P.
(1979) Order in court: The organisation of verbal interaction in judicial settings. London: Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, J.M. and J. Heritage
eds. Structures of social action Cambridge Cambridge University Press DOI logo
Beach, W.
(1993) Transitional regularities for ‘casual’ #x0022;Okay#x0022; usages. Journal of Pragmatics, 191:325–352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bilmes, J.
(1988) The concept of preference in conversation analysis. Language in Society, 171:161–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boden, D and D. Zimmerman
eds. Talk and social structure Cambridge Polity Press
Button, G. & J. Lee
(eds.) (1987) Talk and social organization. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Drew, P.
(1990) Conversation analysis: who needs it? Text, 10, 1–2, 27–35.Google Scholar
Drummond, K. & R. Hopper
1993 Back channels revisited: acknowledgement tokens and speakership incipiency. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 26, 2:157–177. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Emmison, M.
(1988) Victors and vanquished: the social organization of ceremonial congratulations and commiserations.Language and Communication 71:95–110.Google Scholar
Gardner, R.
in prep). Notes on the effect of intonation contour on the function of mm and some other receipt tokens.
Heritage, J.
(1984a) Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
(1984b) A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. Atkinson, & J. Heritage (eds.), 299–345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1989) Current developments in conversation analysis. In Roger & Bull (eds).Google Scholar
Moerman, M.
(1988) Talking culture: ethnography and conversation analysis. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Psathas, G.
(1990) The organization of talk, gaze and activity in a medical interview. In G. Psathas (ed.) Interaction competence. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G.
(1973) A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation: overlapped tag-positioned address terms in closing sequences. Semiotica, 91:47–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1983) Two explorations of the organization of overlapping talk in conversation: notes on some orderliness in overlap onset. Tilburg Papers in Language and Literature.Google Scholar
(1984a) On the organization of laughter in talk about troubles. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds.), 346–369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1984b) Notes on a systematic deployment of the acknowledgement tokens ‘yeah’ and ‘mm hm’. Papers in Linguistics, 17, 2:197–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1986) Notes on ‘latency’ in overlap onset. Human Studies, 91:153–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1993) Caveat speaker: preliminary notes on recipient topic-shift implicature. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 26, 1:1–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, G., H. Sacks & E. Schegloff
(1987) Notes on laughter in the pursuit of intimacy. In Button & Lee (eds), 152–205.Google Scholar
Liberman, K.
(1985) Understanding interaction in Central Australia: an ethnomethodological study of Australian Aboriginal people. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Moerman, R.
(1988) Talking culture: Ethnography and conversation analysis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roger, D. and P. Bull.
(eds.) (1989) Conversation: an interdisciplinary perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., E. Schegloff & G. Jefferson
(1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 501:696–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E.
(1982) Discourse as an interactional achievement: some uses of ‘uh huh’ and other things that come between sentences. In D. Tannen (ed). Analyzing discourse: text and talk. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
(1987) Analyzing single episodes of interaction: an exercise in conversation analysis. Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 2:101–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ten Have, P.
(1991) Talk and institution: a reconsideration of the ‘asymmetry’ of doctor-patient interaction. In D. Boden and D. Zimmerman (eds.), 138–163.Google Scholar
West, C.
(1983) “Ask me no questions...”: an analysis of queries and replies in physician-patient dialogues. In S. Fisher and A.D. Todd (eds.) The social organization of doctor-patient communication. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 75–106.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Burns, Anne
1998. Teaching Speaking. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 18 ► pp. 102 ff. DOI logo
Mullan, Kerry
2015. Taking French interactional style into the classroom. System 48 ► pp. 35 ff. DOI logo
Tartory, Raeda, Sami Al-khawaldeh, Samia Azieb & Bassam Al Saideen
2024. Backchannel forms and functions in context and culture: The use of backchannels in Arab media discourse. Discourse Studies DOI logo
Wan, Jenny Yau-ni
2018. Functions of Frequently Used Back Channels in a Corpus of Intercultural Conversations between Hong Kong Chinese (HKC) and native English Speakers (NES). Journal of Intercultural Communication 18:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.