By Dalat TESOL
Helping novice researchers examine how interaction works in real-time communication
📌 Introduction
Language teaching is not only about what is taught — but how it is taught through interaction. Every time a teacher asks a question, waits for an answer, corrects a mistake, or gives feedback, a subtle sequence of social organization unfolds.
Conversation Analysis (CA) is a method that allows researchers to study these moment-by-moment exchanges with remarkable detail. It treats language as action and focuses on how speakers do things like inviting, disagreeing, or managing classroom participation.
In TESOL, CA helps us:
- Understand classroom interaction patterns
- Examine learner participation and silence
- Explore repair, scaffolding, and feedback mechanisms
- Identify challenges in speaking assessment and oral proficiency
This article introduces:
- What CA is and where it comes from
- How it differs from other discourse methods
- Core concepts and transcription conventions
- Data collection and analysis steps
- Sample TESOL research applications
- Writing guidance and practical advice
🔍 1. What Is Conversation Analysis?
Conversation Analysis is the systematic study of naturally occurring spoken interaction. It originated in sociology, particularly from ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967), which studies how people produce social order in everyday life.
CA was developed by Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. It emphasizes close, bottom-up analysis of talk without relying on preconceived categories.
🧠 Conversation Analysis sees talk as a collaborative achievement governed by implicit rules. Even silence, pauses, or overlaps convey meaning.
⚖️ 2. How CA Differs from Other Approaches
| Feature | Conversation Analysis | Critical Discourse Analysis | Ethnography |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | Naturally occurring talk | Texts, policy, interviews | Observation, fieldnotes |
| Focus | Turn-taking, repair, sequence | Ideology, power, representation | Culture, beliefs |
| Interpretation | Bottom-up, micro-level | Top-down, theory-driven | Thick description |
| Common in | Classroom talk, phone calls, interviews | Curriculum analysis, feedback | Language communities, identity |
📚 3. Key Concepts in Conversation Analysis
| Concept | Explanation | TESOL Example |
|---|---|---|
| Turn-taking | How speakers manage who talks next | Teacher allocates turns by name |
| Sequence | How utterances occur in order (e.g., Q → A → Feedback) | IRF pattern in classroom questioning |
| Repair | Fixing trouble in speaking, hearing, or understanding | Learner self-corrects a grammar mistake |
| Adjacency pair | Two-part exchanges (e.g., greeting–response) | Teacher: “How are you?” → Student: “I’m fine” |
| Preference organization | How certain responses are socially preferred | Delayed disagreement in group discussion |
🎧 4. What Kind of Data Does CA Use?
CA uses audio or video recordings of naturally occurring interaction. Interviews and written transcripts are not sufficient unless paired with authentic recordings.
| Data Type | Example | Use in TESOL |
|---|---|---|
| Classroom recordings | Teacher-student exchanges | Interactional scaffolding, questioning |
| Speaking tests | IELTS, role plays | Turn management, rating reliability |
| Peer talk | Group work discussions | Language-related episodes (LREs) |
| Tutorials or conferences | Writing support sessions | Identity negotiation, alignment |
💡 Tip: You don’t need a huge dataset — 30 minutes of classroom talk can yield rich findings.
✏️ 5. Transcription in CA: The Jefferson System
To analyze interaction, you must transcribe using conventions that capture more than words. Below is a basic example.
🔍 Transcript Example: Peer Discussion in Speaking Class
txtCopyEdit01 S1: so what do you think about the topic?
02 (1.2)
03 S2: I- I don’t really know?
04 S1: okay ((laughs)) well maybe we can say something about pollution?
05 S2: mm yeah:: like air pollution?
06 S1: yeah yeah:: and we can say it affects health (.) and the environment
07 S2: ((nods)) good idea
Key Features in this Transcript:
- (1.2) indicates a 1.2 second pause → possibly hesitation or cognitive processing
- I- I don’t really know? shows a self-repair and rising intonation
- yeah:: with elongated vowel signals agreement and shared understanding
- ((laughs)) and ((nods)) reflect non-verbal contributions
This small excerpt can be used to analyze how students initiate collaboration, navigate uncertainty, and build shared ideas.
🧪 6. Sample CA Research Topics in TESOL
✅ Topic 1: Teacher Repair Strategies
RQ: How do teachers manage learner errors in real-time?
- Data: 5–6 recorded lessons
- Focus: Explicit vs. implicit repair, timing, student uptake
- Contribution: Informs teacher education and error correction training
✅ Topic 2: Peer Interaction in Speaking Tasks
RQ: How do learners manage uncertainty in group discussions?
- Data: 3–4 small group recordings
- Focus: Delay, laughter, hedging, topic shifts
- Contribution: Shows how fluency develops through interactional work
✅ Topic 3: Participation in EMI Lectures
RQ: How is turn-taking managed in multilingual university classrooms?
- Data: 2–3 video-recorded EMI lectures
- Focus: Lecturer strategies, long pauses, code-switching
- Contribution: Enhances understanding of inclusive participation
✅ Topic 4: Feedback Interaction in Speaking Tests
RQ: How do raters use follow-up questions in oral proficiency exams?
- Data: Recordings of examiner–candidate interactions
- Focus: Backchannels, uptake, clarification requests
- Contribution: Informs test design and rating reliability
📝 7. Writing a CA-Based Research Paper
Include these key components:
- Introduction
- Explain the significance of interaction in TESOL
- Introduce CA and your research question(s)
- Methodology
- Justify use of CA (focus on turn-taking, repair, etc.)
- Describe the data, context, participants
- Outline transcription conventions and analytic steps
- Findings
- Present excerpts (with line numbers)
- Offer line-by-line analysis (who initiates, how others respond, timing, repairs)
- Link patterns to your RQ and prior research
- Discussion
- Reflect on what the interaction reveals
- Discuss pedagogical implications
- Acknowledge limitations (e.g., limited context, interpretation constraints)
🛑 8. Limitations and Misconceptions in CA
- CA avoids speculating about speaker intention unless it’s observable in talk
- CA is not content analysis — it doesn’t focus on topic themes
- CA must use naturally occurring data — not hypothetical or scripted speech
- CA studies often have small datasets, but they demand fine-grained analysis
🧠 CA reveals the micro-mechanics of interaction, but it is not meant to generalize broadly without further study.
📚 Further Reading
- TBC
🧠 Final Thoughts
Conversation Analysis offers TESOL researchers a lens into the real-time life of the classroom. Whether it’s how students hesitate before speaking or how teachers scaffold answers, CA helps us slow down and see the building blocks of language learning.
You don’t need large samples — just careful transcription, close attention, and a thoughtful question. The classroom is already full of rich interaction. CA gives us the tools to notice it.
🌿 Dalat TESOL – Chia sẻ kiến thức giảng dạy, nghiên cứu khoa học và cơ hội xuất bản