Accessibility statement

The language of turn and sequence

Aims

The primary site of language use is conversation. In this module you will study the organisation of conversation at the finest level of detail, both theoretically and empirically. You will be introduced to conversation analysis (CA), a data-driven method for the study of conversation and talk-in-interaction. You will learn about, and learn how to analyse, the basic mechanics of conversation, which includes 

  • turn-taking—how opportunities to speak are allocated;
  • action-sequencing—how turns at talk by successive speakers form coherent courses of action;
  • repair—how speakers resolve troubles of speaking, hearing, and understanding; and
  • preference organization—biases in practices of speaking that favor social affiliation over disaffiliation. 

 The module combines lectures that cover the core theory and key findings of CA with hands-on practical sessions in which you will develop the skills necessary to do CA, including recording conversation, transcribing data, building collections of conversational phenomena, and writing up analyses. 

 In this module you will: 

  • learn about the basic organisation of conversation;
  • learn to apply the methods of CA to recorded conversations;
  • learn to write about language use at the finest level of detail;
  • record a conversation and use it for a research project; and
  • analyse multiple conversations and build a collection of a phenomenon of interest.

 The module is the first in a trio of modules on social interaction, the others being two final year modules, Language as Action (E/L64H) and Multimodality: Language and the Body (E/L66H).

About this module

  • Module name
    The language of turn and sequence
  • Course code
    E/L34I (LAN00034I)
  • Teacher 
    Kobin Kendrick
  • Term(s) taught
    Spring/summer
  • Credits
    20