Aim:

To introduce students to the description of speech activities in conversation.

Method:

Transcriptions of actual requests are described and analysed to show how they are made in recognisable and patterned ways.

Aim:

To introduce students to the description and analysis of "story-telling" in conversation.

Method:

The transcription of a story told in the course of a conversation is analysed and described to show how and why the story is structured in the way it is.

Aim:

To introduce students to the description of the dynamic processes of turn-taking.

Method:

Transcriptions of multi-party conversations are analysed to show the methods people use in conversation to ensure that there is a regular and smooth exchange of speaking turns.

Aim:

To continue the study of turn-taking begun in 9/3 by investigating the construction of a particular sort of speaking turn.

Method:

Fragments of transcribed conversation, in which particular speakers “hold the floor” at length, are analysed to show how they achieve this.

Aim:

To introduce students to the use of the analysis of one conversational phenomenon to help explain another.

Method:

A transcription of a conversation, in which one person is siding with another person who is making a complaint about someone else, is analysed to show how the turn-taking system can be manipulated.

Aim:

To introduce students to the analysis of questions in a conversation.

Method:

Transcriptions of media interviews are analysed to show how and why question formats are manipulated in the ways they are.