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As open class repair initiators (OCRIs, e.g., “what” or “huh”) do not specify the type of repairable, choosing an adequate repair format in the next turn becomes a practical problem for the participants. Whereas in monolingual/L1 speaker conversations participants typically orient towards troubles caused by reduced acoustic intelligibility or by topical/sequential disjunction, in multilingual/L2 interactions possible problems regarding asymmetric language choices and skills can be added – and might be responded to accordingly. Based on videotaped international business meetings and interactions at a customs post, this paper investigates various open class and embodied other-initiations of repair. By means of a conversation analytical and multimodal approach to social interaction, this contribution focuses first on instances of audible OCRIs and illustrates that they are accompanied by embodied conduct. Second, two types of embodied other-initiation of repair are scrutinized: a lifted eyebrows/head display and a freeze display in which movements are suspended. The analysis shows that participants treat these as referring either to troubles in hearing (display 1) or to troubles in understanding the linguistic format (display 2). This leads to the formulation of further desiderata and analytical challenges regarding the multimodal other-initiation of repair in general and in professional international settings in particular.
Cet article se penche sur un épisode radiophonique durant lequel deux animateurs effectuent un coming out hétérosexuel à l’occasion de la journée internationale du coming out (11 octobre). Dans une perspective issue de l’analyse conversationnelle d’inspiration ethnométhodologique, il étudie une collection d’occurrences de coming out, permettant non seulement d’identifier un format séquentiel récurrent et la manière dont il contribue à l’efficacité de la pratique, mais aussi de réfléchir à la façon dont il peut être utilisé dans différents contextes sociaux, notamment médiatisés et médiatiques. En particulier, l’article montre comment la pratique est au service d’une émission radiophonique sur le coming out et prépare la transition vers le traitement de l’homosexualité à la radio. Grâce à un enregistrement vidéo du travail des animateurs dans le studio de radio, l’article décrit la façon dont le thème de la journée internationale du coming out est fabriqué et orchestré dans les coulisses de la radio et sur les ondes. Ce faisant, il montre la contribution d’une analyse conversationnelle à l’approche du coming out dans les études de genre – où la pratique est largement discutée mais sans être analysée sur la base d’occurrences documentées. L’article revient ainsi sur l’épistémologie du closet chère à Eve Sedgwick, en proposant une anatomie du coming out en contexte médiatisé, qui en éclaire les enjeux non seulement épistémiques mais aussi de normativisation, publicisation et spectacularisation.
Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit Erzählen in seiner massenmedialen Vermittlung in einer Unterhaltungsendung im Fernsehen. Ziel ist es, anhand einer multimodalen und medienlinguistischen Analyse eines exemplarischen Ausschnitts aus der TV-Unterhaltungssendung "Zimmer frei" die Spezifik solcher massenmedialen Erzählungen herauszuarbeiten. Zum einen wird aufgezeigt, dass sich massenmediales Erzählen in seinem sequenziellen Auf- und Ausbau aufgrund seiner Einbindung in ein mediales Unterhaltungsformat in systematischer Weise von Alltagserzählungen unterscheidet. Zum anderen wird veranschaulicht, inwieweit theatrale Inszenierungs- und Aufführungsmittel der Fernsehproduktion die Aktivität des Erzählens mitkonstituieren. Erzählungen im Fernsehen, so die analyseleitende Prämisse, können nicht schlicht als durch das Fernsehen übertragene narrative Aktivitäten konzeptualisiert werden. Vielmehr sind sie durch eine mediale Theatralität mitgeprägt. (Para)verbale, körperliche und mediale Inszenierungs- und Aufführungsverfahren greifen konzertiert ineinander, um Erzählungen als "dramas to an audience" (Goffman 1974:508) hervorzubringen.
The Lyon’s team research task consists in the study of the way in which multilingual resources are mobilized in team work within collaborative activities; how they are exploited in a specific way in order both to enhance collaboration and to respect the specificities of the members’ linguistic competences and practices within the team. Central to our analytical work, which is inspired by ethnomethodological conversation analysis, is the relationship between multilingual resources and the situated organization of linguistic uses and of social practices.
In this chapter, I will focus on the phenomenon of drop out, i.e., withdrawal from the turn due to overlapping talk, in order to reflect on the link between “unfinished” turns and participation framework. With the help of a sequential and multimodal analysis inspired by the conversation analytical approach, I will show that dropping out from a turn is strongly linked to the availability displayed by potential recipients of a turn-at-talk. Although conversation analysis has described in detail the systematics of overlapping talk, especially of its onset (Jefferson 1973, 1983, 1986) and its resolution (Scheg-loff 2000; Jefferson 2004), the phenomenon of withdrawal from a turn due to simultaneous talk has not been investigated in detail. While it seems to bedifficult to describe this interactional practice by referring exclusively to syntactic features (incompleteness of the turn), I suggest looking at turn withdrawal from a multimodal perspective (e.g. Goodwin 1980, 1981; Mondada2007a; Schmitt 2005), taking into account visible resources like gaze or gesture. The problem of continuing or stopping a turn-in-progress in overlapping talk can be closely linked to the participation framework (Goodwin and Goodwin 2004), as speakers do visibly take into account their recipient’s availability and coordinate their turn construction with the dynamic changes of the participation framework and the interactional space.
Having the necessary skills for staying in contact with friends and relatives through digital devices is crucial in today’s world. As the current COVID-19 pandemic shows, this holds especially true for the elderly. Being quarantined and restricted from physically meeting people, various communication technologies are more important than ever for staying social and informed on current events. In nursing homes, staff members are now finding new ways for staying in touch with family members by assisting residents in making video calls with mobile devices.
But what if elderly people cannot rely on personal assistance for accessing these alternative means of communication? This raises the general question of how older people can and do learn to use such technologies. Although the internet is full of guides and instructional videos on how to use smartphones or tablets, they are a cold comfort to someone who may not even know what an internet browser is.
Especially for digital newcomers, the tried and true method of face-to-face instruction is invaluable. While many older people turn to their children or grandchildren for help in all things digital, courses specifically tailored for elderly users are also increasingly popular.
More and more governmental initiatives and associations indeed acknowledge the already existing interest of elderly citizens in digital tools and their growing need to receive customized training (e.g. “SeniorSurf” and “Kansalaisen digitaidot” in Finland or “Silver Tipps” in Germany). For a researcher of social interaction, these courses can also provide a valuable window for discovering what it looks and sounds like to learn to use essential but sometimes alien technologies.
This study investigates other-initiated repair and its embodied dimension in casual English as lingua franca (ELF) conversations, thereby contributing to the further understanding of multimodal repair practices in social interaction. Using multimodal conversation analysis, we focus on two types of restricted other-initiation of repair (OIR): partial repeats preceded or followed by the question word what (i.e., what X?/X what?) and copular interrogative clauses (i.e., what is X). Partial repeats with what produced with rising final intonation are consistently accompanied by a head poke and treated as relating to troubles in hearing, with the repair usually consisting of a repeat. In contrast to these partial repeats, copular interrogative clauses are produced with downward final intonation and accompanied by face-related embodied conduct. The what is X OIRs primarily target code-switched lexical items, the understanding of which is critical for maintaining the repair initiator’s involvement in the ongoing sequence. This study also contributes some general reflections on the possible complexity of OIR and repair practices from a multimodal perspective.
This contribution investigates the use of the Czech particle jako (“like”/“as”) in naturally occurring conversations. Inspired by interactional research on unfinished or suspended utterances and on turn-final conjunctions and particles, the analysis aims to trace the possible development of jako from conjunction to a tag-like particle that can be exploited for mobilizing affiliative responses. Traditionally, jako has been described as conjunction used for comparing two elements or for providing a specification of a first element [“X (is) like Y”]. In spoken Czech, however, jako can be flexibly positioned within a speaking turn and does not seem to operate as a coordinating or hypotactic conjunction. As a result, prior studies have described jako as a polyfunctional particle. This article will try to shed light on the meaning of jako in spoken discourse by focusing on its apparent fuzzy or “filler” uses, i.e., when it is found in a mid-turn position in multi-unit turns and in the immediate vicinity of hesitations, pauses, and turn suspensions. Based on examples from mundane, video-recorded conversations and on a sequential and multimodal approach to social interaction, the analyses will first show that jako frequently frames discursive objects that co-participants should respond to. By using jako before a pause and concurrently adopting specific embodied displays, participants can more explicitly seek to mobilize responsive action. Moreover, as jako tends to cluster in multi-unit turns involving the formulation of subjective experience or stance, it can be shown to be specifically designed for mobilizing affiliative responses. Finally, it will be argued that the potential of jako to open up interactive turn spaces can be linked to the fundamental comparative semantics of the original conjunction.
This paper investigates self-initiated uses of mobile phones (such as texting or making a call) in everyday video-recorded conversations among Czech speakers. Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis, it illustrates how participants publicly frame their own device use (for example, by announcements), and how co-present interlocutors respond to it. Previous studies have described how participants manage two concurrent communicative involvements, but have not provided detailed sequential descriptions of how device use can be negotiated and accounted for. This study shows that mobile device use in co-presence is not a priori problematic (or vice versa). Instead, participants frame their technology use in different ways according to various features of the social situation they treat as momentarily relevant. These features include the course of the conversation and how the device use relates to it, the overall participation framework and the opacity of the device use for co-present others.
You might not know what a “smombie” is, but you have certainly already met one today. In public streets and places, the so-called “smartphone zombies” regularly cross our ways. They walk slowly, in peculiar ways, their eyes and fingers focused on their smartphone displays. While some cities have already introduced specific walking lanes or ground-level traffic signs for smartphone users “on the go”, it is not only road safety that is at stake. Frequently hunching over our phones causes cervical pain, we are addicted to likes on social media, and the fear of missing out prevents us from switching off our phones. If asked if mobile device use is possibly harmful to our bodies and minds, most people would spontaneously agree. Our social skills seem to constantly diminish since smartphones have become an everyday tool: we stick to them like glue while waiting for the bus, while walking, while eating, even while being with others. Will we turn into social zombies in the end?
This article examines how the most frequent imperative forms of the verb to show in German (zeig mal) and Czech (ukaž) are deployed in object-centred sequences. Specifically, it focuses on smartphone-based showing activities as these were the main sequential environments of show imperatives in the datasets investigated. In both languages, the imperative form does not merely aim to elicit a responsive action from the smartphone holder (such as making the device available) but projects an individual course of action from the requester’s side in the form of an immediate visual inspection of the digital content. This inspection is carried out as part of a joint course of action, allowing the recipient to provide a more detailed response to a prior action. Therefore, this specific imperative form is proven to be cross-linguistically suited to technology-mediated inspection sequences.
Our research task consists in the study of the way in which multilingual resources are mobilized in team work within collaborative activities; how they are exploited in a specific way in order both to enhance collaboration and to respect the specificities of the members’ linguistic competences and practices within the team. Central to our analytical work, which is inspired by ethnomethodological conversation analysis, is the relationship between multilingual resources and the situated organization of linguistic uses and of social practices. These two aspects are reflexively articulated, multilingual resources being shaped by the very contexts of their use and activities being constrained and thus structured by the available resources.
L’équipe de Lyon étudie la façon dont les ressources plurilingues sont mobilisées dans des activités collaboratives au sein du travail d’équipe. La démarche analytique est inspirée de l’Analyse Conversationnelle d’emprunte ethnomethodologique, et considère comme centrale la relation entre ressources plurilingues et organisation située des usages linguistiques et des pratiques sociales. Ces deux aspects sont réflexivement articulés, les ressources plurilingues étant modelées par leur contexte d’utilisation, et les activités étant mutuellement contraintes et structurées par les ressources disponibles.
Since Lerner coined the notion of delayed completion in 1989, this recurrent social practice of continuing one’s speaking turn while disregarding an intermediate co-participant’s utterance has not been investigated with regard to embodied displays and actions. A sequential approach to videotaped mundane conversations in German will explain the occurrence and use of delayed completions. First, especially in multi-party and multi-activity settings, delayed completions can result from reduced monitoring and coordinating activities. Second, recipients can use intra-turn response slots for more extended responsive actions than the current speaker initially projected, leading to delayed completion sequences. Finally, delayed completions are used for blocking possibly misaligned co-participant actions. The investigation of visible action illustrates that delayed completions are a basic practice for retrospectively managing co-participant response slots.
Dans le cadre de l’ethnométhodologie et de l’analyse conversationnelle, cet article s’intéresse à la production de la parole radiophonique en contexte, telle qu’elle est accomplie en temps réel et de manière située, incarnée et soutenue technologiquement dans le studio. Il vise ainsi à replacer la parole radiophonique dans son écologie matérielle et à l’aborder dans ses processus de production plutôt que comme un produit fini. L’analyse se focalise sur les instants qui précèdent immédiatement la prise de parole des animateurs, sur le moment où ils procèdent aux derniers échanges coordonnant leur parole à l’antenne et où ils mobilisent une série de ressources technologiques juste avant le passage au direct : ils précisent ou confirment les dernières prises de décision concernant ce qu’ils vont dire et la manière de le dire, prennent en main leur casque, le mettent, arrangent le micro, effectuent les derniers réglages de régie. Ce moment révèle les arrangements technologiques – dans la mobilisation de plusieurs artefacts - et interactionnels – dans la mise en œuvre de procédés de coordination et d’ajustement mutuel - complexes qui rendent possible la parole en direct.
In German oral discourse, previous research has shown that okay can be used both as a response token (e.g., for agreeing with the previous turn or for claiming a certain degree of understanding) and as a discourse marker (e.g., for closing conversational topics or sequences and/or indicating transitions). This contribution focuses on the use of okay as a response token and how it is connected with the speakers’ interactional state of knowledge (their understanding, their assumptions etc.). The analysis is based on video recorded everyday conversations in German and a sequential, micro-analytic approach (multimodal conversation analysis). The main function of conversational okay in the selected data set is related to indicating the acceptance of prior information. By okay, speakers however claim acceptance of a piece of information that they can’t verify or check. The analysis contrasts different sequences containing okay only with sequences in which change-of-state tokens such as ah and achso co-occur with okay. This illustrates that okay itself does not index prior information as new, and that it is not used for agreeing with or for confirming prior information. Instead it enables the speaker to adopt a kind of neutral, “non-agreeing” position towards a given piece of information.
Obwohl Smartphones und andere mobile Endgeräte mittlerweile ein fester Bestandteil unseres Alltags sind, betonen öffentliche und wissenschaftliche Diskurse immer noch bevorzugt mögliche negative Auswirkungen ihres Gebrauchs auf Gesundheit und Kommunikationsverhalten. Dieser Beitrag skizziert einen anderen Ansatz zur Analyse alltäglichen Technologiegebrauchs, indem er zunächst auf Studien aus der angewandten Linguistik und insbesondere der interaktionalen Forschung eingeht, die sich auf dessen öffentliche Beobachtbarkeit, Mobilität und Ubiquität konzentrieren. Anhand zweier Auszüge aus videoaufgezeichneten Interaktionen wird dann aufgezeigt, wie eine multimodale und sequentielle Analyse dazu beitragen kann, Technologiegebrauch als eine routinemäßige und geordnete soziale Praktik zu verstehen, die nicht mit sozialem, kooperativem Handeln in Widerspruch steht oder dieses gefährdet. Ein detaillierter Blick auf situierten Smartphonegebrauch in informellen und institutionellen Face-to-Face-Settings lenkt die analytische Aufmerksamkeit weg von einer generisch positiven oder negativen Bewertung der Technologie hin zu verschiedenen interaktionalen Phänomenen, die mit ihrer Handhabung und Erkundung in Zusammenhang stehen. Es wird abschließend argumentiert, dass diese Art von mikroanalytischem Ansatz zu einer facettenreichen und objektiveren Perspektive auf die situierte Nutzung mobiler Geräte beitragen kann.
This article investigates mundane photo taking practices with personal mobile devices in the co-presence of others, as well as “divergent” self-initiated smartphone use, thereby exploring the impact of everyday technologies on social interaction. Utilizing multimodal conversation analysis, we examined sequences in which young adults take pictures of food and drinks in restaurants and cafés. Although everyday interactions are abundant in opportunities for accomplishing food photography as a side activity, our data show that taking pictures is also often prioritized over other activities. Through a detailed sequential analysis of video recordings and dynamic screen captures of mobile devices, we illustrate how photographers orient to the momentary opportunities for and relevance of photo taking, that is, how they systematically organize their photographing with respect to the ongoing social encounter and the (projected) changes in the material environment. We investigate how the participants multimodally negotiate the “mainness” and “sideness” (Mondada, 2014) of situated food photography and describe some particular features of participants’ conduct in moments of mundane multiactivity.
Drawing on naturalistic video and audio recordings of international meetings, and within the framework of conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and interactional linguistics, this chapter studies how multilingual resources are mobilized in social interactions among professionals, how available linguistic and embodied resources are identified and used by the participants, which solutions are locally elaborated by them when they are confronted with various languages spoken but not shared among them, and which definition of multilingualism they adopt for all practical purposes. Focusing on the multilingual solutions emically elaborated in international professional meetings, we show that the participants orient to a double principle: on the one hand, they orient to the progressivity of the interaction, adopting all the possible resources that enable them to go on within the current activity; on the other hand, they orient to the intersubjectivity of the interaction, treating, preventing and repairing possible troubles and problems of understanding. Specific multilingual solutions can be adopted to keep this difficult balance between progressivity and intersubjectivity; they vary according to the settings, the competences at hand, the linguistic and embodied resources locally defined by the participants as publicly available, the multilingual resources treated as totally or partially shared, as transparent or opaque, and as needing repair or not. The paper begins by sketching the analytical framework, including the methodology and the data collected; it then presents some general findings, before offering an analysis of various ways in which participants keep the balance between progressivity and intersubjectivity in different multilingual interactional contexts.
Within a rapidly digitalising society, it is important to understand how the learning and teaching of digital skills play out in situ, particularly amongst older adults who acquire these skills later in life. This paper focuses on participants engaged in the process of learning digital skills in adult education courses. Using video recordings from adult education centres in Finland and Germany, we explore how students mobilise their teachers’ assistance when encountering problems with their smartphones, laptops or tablets. Prior research on social interaction has shown that assistance can be recruited through a variety of verbal and embodied formats. In this specific educational setting, participants can use complaints about their digital skills or mobile devices to obtain assistance. Utilising multimodal conversation analysis, we describe two basic sequence types involving students’ complaints, discuss their cross-linguistic characteristics, and reflect on their connection to this educational setting and digital devices.