1. Lesson 5
Rebin W. Mustafa

2. Conversation analysis (CA)
• An approach to the study of social interaction and language.
• The scope of ca is not limited to conversation as a genre of
discourse (small talk, gossip) but encompasses any human
activity that involves an exchange of turns at talk and other
meaningful conduct.

3. What is the purpose of conversational
analysis?
Conversation analysis is a specific method of
analyzing qualitative data. Its main purpose is to
characterize and explain the ways in which those
engaged in conversation maintain an interactional
social order by examining the 'technology of
conversation'

4. What are the main elements of
conversation analysis?
Conversation analysis identify three basic elements
of conversation, the speaking turn, the adjacency
pair and the sequential implicativeness.

5. 1. The speaking turn
In conversation analysis, turn-taking is a
term for the manner in which orderly
conversation normally takes place. A basic
understanding can come right from the term
itself: It's the notion that people in a
conversation take turns in speaking.

6. 2. Adjacency pairs
Adjacency pairs are sequences of two related
utterances which are given by two different
speakers. The second utterance is always a
response to the first. Adjacency pairs are the
smallest unit in conversation.

7. 3. Sequential implicativeness
A feature of texture is "sequential
implicativeness", as suggested by Schegloff and
Sacks (1974). This refers to the property of
language that each line in a text is linked from or
linked to the previous line.

8. What are the types of conversation?
The Four Types of Conversations: Debate,
Dialogue, Discourse, and Diatribe.

9. 1. Debate is a competitive, two-way conversation. The goal is
to win an argument or convince someone, such as the other
participant or third-party observers.
2. Dialogue is a cooperative, two-way conversation. The goal
is for participants to exchange information and build
relationships with one another.
3. Discourse is a cooperative, one-way conversation. The goal
to deliver information from the speaker/writer to the
listeners/readers.
4. Diatribe is a competitive, one-way conversation. The goal
is to express emotions, browbeat those that disagree with
you, and/or inspires those that share the same perspective.

10. Example:
1. Debate: two family members from opposite sides
of the political spectrum arguing over politics.
2. Dialogue: two undecided voters talking to each
other about the candidates, trying to figure out who
they want to vote for.
3. Discourse: a professor giving a lecture on
international affairs.
4. Diatribe: a disgruntled voter venting about the
election’s outcome.

11. What are the 5 principles of conversation?
The five-stage model of conversation says that
there are five steps in every conversation: opening,
feedforward, business, feedback, and closing.

12. Opening
The first step in conversation is the opening,
which usually involves some kind of greeting:
“Hi.” “How are you?”

13. Feedforward
In the second step of conversation, you usually give
some kind of feed forward in which you may seek to
accomplish a variety of functions. “Haven’t we met
before?” or “Nice day, isn’t it?” In e-mail you give
feedforward simply by sending the message, which
tells the other person that you want to communicate.

14. Business/focus
The third step is the business, or the substance and
focus, of the conversation. We converse to fulfill one
or several of the general purposes of interpersonal
communication: to learn, relate, influence, play, or
help.

15. Feedback
The fourth step of conversation, feedback, In
feedback we reflect back on the conversation.

16. Closing
The last step of the conversation process, the
opposite of the first step, is the closing, the goodbye .
Like the opening, the closing may be verbal or
nonverbal but usually is a combination of both. The
closing usually also signals some degree of
supportiveness—for example, you express your
pleasure in interacting “Well, it was good talking
with you”.

17. Pauses, overlaps and backchannels
1. Pause is a silent time made by the speaker when
having a conversation. This time usually takes 2,5
until 3 second. Pause has two types. such us em, er ,
uh and that is called filler pauses. The other types of
the pauses is unfiller. Unfiller pauses can may form
of the state of silent the elongation sound in the end
of the word, such us “information-n-n-n-n” or has
been only silent without use word.

18. In conversation can be found, such as:
Lora: What majors will you take Dave?
Dave: English education study program. But I
haven’t really decided yet.
Lora: So, you want to be a teacher?
Dave: Em --- no, I don’t really think that I can do it.
Based on the above interactions between Lora and
Dave, there is a short pause marked by ‘em’. And
can be interpreted as doubt.

19. 2. Overlaps
Overlapping talk simultaneous by two or more
interlocutors in represented by lining the overlapping
talk up and marking it with square bracket. Overlaps
or double slash (//) is simultaneous talk by two or
more speaker, irrespective of its status in participants
minds as an interruption. Interruption it happens
when speaker do not finish the speaking yet, thus the
listeners take the turn before the speaker has finished
speaking.

20. Example of overlaps in conversation, such us:
Daniel: Do you see footage for tonight?
Billy: Yes, on the beach,
Daniel: Gosh, he’s so cool.
Billy: Especially when there are waves // hit him.
Daniel: that’s really cool.
Daniel and Billy make an overlaps in their
conversation.
It was caused Billy make an interruption when
mentioning what happened to the waves.

21. 3. Backchannels
Backchannels is respond given while someone else
is talking, to show interest, attention and or a
willingness to keep listening. They are typically
short utterance such as yeah , mmm , uh-huh and it
is called as vocal backchannels. Nodding a head,
smiling, or doing body language are also included
and it is called as non vocal backchannels.

22. Backchannels in conversation, such as:
Aciel: Excuse me ... I'm a new student here, can you tell me where the toilet
is?
Eden: Toilet? Just go straight here ...
Aciel: Uh-huh
Eden: and then, turn right ... and the last room is toilet.
Aciel: Mmm.. oh yeah thankyou.
The signal uh-huh, mmm, yeah, gives the speaker feedback that the direction
is being received.
This show that the listener follows what speaker said.