Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

TLDR

Interpersonal communication is explored through social psychological and conversation analysis frameworks, citing contributions from Bull, Roger, Heritage, and Hopper. The authors use observational studies of dyadic turn‑taking, phonetic transcription methods, time‑action analysis, and apply the approach to social skills, disability, and classroom discourse.

Abstract

Part 1 Concepts of interpersonal communication: the social psychological approach to interpersonal communication, Peter Bull and Derek Roger current developments in conversation analysis, John Heritage conversation analysis and social psychology as descriptions of interpersonal communication, Robert Hopper. Part 2 Methods of observation: experimental studies of dyadic turn-taking behaviour, Derek Roger recalling someone from the past, Paul Drew family interaction from an interactional sociolinguistic perspective, Erica Huls. Part 3 Transcription procedures: psychological approaches to transcription, Peter Bull preliminary notes on a possible metric which provides for a standard maximum silence of approximately one second in conversation, Gail Jefferson on the use of general phonetic techniques in handling conversational material, J.Kelly and J.K.Local. Part 4 Data analysis: time and action, Peter Collett remarks on the methodology of conversation analysis, A.J.Wootton. Part 5 Research applications: social skills and physical handicap, Andrew P.Thomas the role of cuelessness in social interaction - an examination of teaching by telephone, D.R.Rutter out of their minds - an analysis of discourse in two South African science classrooms, Johan Muller.