Abstract

Conversation analysis is an approach to the study of human interaction in society. Its name might be taken to imply a concern with informal and purely sociable talk, but the approach encompasses interactions of all sorts, ranging from informal to formal, from sociable to task-focused, and from face-to-face to synchronous technologically mediated interactions such as telephone talk and videoconferences. Although conversation analysis is wide-ranging in scope, the focus on the organization of conduct within interaction distinguishes this field from other forms of discourse analysis concerned with narratives, speeches, or texts. Conversation analysis is also distinguished by a methodology that exploits the affordances provided by recorded interaction as a form of data.