Introduction to the study of social interaction - Einzelansicht

”Whatever gets done is a joint achievement between speakers and their interlocutors” (Schegloff, 1991, p. 155)

A great deal of our daily lives involves talking with others. What makes conversations run smoothly? And why do perceive some conversations as awkward? This seminar will give you the means to answer these and other questions related to human communication. The main goal of the course is to equip students with basic concepts and methods from Conversation Analysis (CA), the study of the various resources people use to organise conversations with others, construct meaning and achieve mutual understanding. A secondary goal is to explore how findings from close empirical analyses of talk can be applied to address real-world concerns in an array of contexts, such as in education and politics.

The course combines lectures, class discussions on assigned readings, oral presentations, journal writing and exercises designed to build technical and analytical skills in conversation analysis. Through these activities and active participation in the sessions, it is expectable that you will develop knowledge of conversational analytical research and CA’s methodological toolkit.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:
- use key concepts associated with CA and the study of talk-in-interaction
- transcribe and analyse linguistic interaction in conversations
- formulate and argue for conversational analytical observations
- formulate research questions related to the analysis of conversations in specific contexts (e.g., classrooms)

The course allows you to obtain three credit points (LP). Please note that this corresponds to 75- 90 hours of work. Your workload for this class will encompass
- preparation of the course material;
- regular and active participation in class, and taking part in team activities and hands-on analyses;
- a written test at the end of the term