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Article published In:
Language and Dialogue
Vol. 14:1 (2024) ► pp.3–32

Embodied action in remote online interaction

A preliminary investigation of hand raising gestures in a Zoom meeting

| Bentley University

In this paper I use a conversation analytic approach to investigate how participants in a meeting held remotely via Zoom use embodied action to solicit selection as next speaker. When hand raising is not immediately successful, participants use embodied actions to withdraw, modify, upgrade, downgrade or reissue gestures in pursuit of selection as next speaker. Due to the technological affordances and limitations of the remote meeting environment, participants’ gestures and hand positions differ from what would typically occur in face-to-face interaction, resulting in frequent gestures near the face that provide for both visibility to the Zoom audience and easy transition to a raised hand position when necessary. I discuss these results in terms of our understanding of how technologically mediated virtual interaction through the internet impacts the use of embodied action, and how participants coordinate their embodied action and responses to it with turn taking and sequence completion.

Keywords: embodied action, gesture, online, conversation analysis, virtual, turn taking, hand raising
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Embodied action in remote online interaction
  • 2.Review of relevant literature: Gestures, embodied action, and remote meetings
    • 2.1Previous research on gestures in face to face interaction
    • 2.2Embodied action in meetings
    • 2.3Previous research on hand raising to facilitate turn taking
    • 2.4Embodied action in remote/video conference technologically mediated interactions
  • 3.Data and methods
    • 3.1Theoretical and analytical perspective
    • 3.2Data and participants
    • 3.3Approach to transcription
  • 4.Embodied action to request selection as next speaker by facilitator
    • 4.1The role of interactional context in successful hand raising
    • 4.2Unsuccessful use of hand raising
      • (1)Withdrawing the request by lowering the hand
      • (2)Creating a waiting posture by transforming the shape or position of the hand
      • (3)Reissuing, upgrading or downgrading the gesture
    • 4.3Pursuit of next speakership through transformations of gestures
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions: Gestures and turn taking in a remote meeting
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00152.gar
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