Introduction To Conversation Analysis

AY2025/2026 Semester 1

Conversation analysis (CA) is a well-attested method within multiple humanistic and social science disciplines that uncovers the working of human communicative behaviours. CA is also used to comprehend the way we produce and understand naturally occurring talk in various social and institutional spheres. This course is an introduction to the methods of CA, a field of research which takes naturally occurring interaction as its object of study. You will receive hands-on training in transcription and systematic analysis of interactional data through this highly empirical and rigorous methodology. With this training, you will become acquainted with how research is conducted in this field of study. Topics covered include turn-taking, adjacency pairs, opening and closing, agreement and disagreement, pre-sequences, preference organization, repair, story-telling, and the requesting, giving, and reception of information in conversation.