Constructing Topicality in University Students' Small-group Discussion: A Conversation Analytic Approach

This paper adopts a conversation analytic approach to the study of educational talk-in-interaction. Specifically, the focus is upon the production of topical talk in a university seminar context. Small groups of students were video-recorded whilst carrying out a discussion task. The data was transcribed and subsequently analysed using conversation analysis. Two related themes were explored. First, the opening sequences of the discussions were analysed and particular attention was paid to the conversational procedures involved in 'getting down to educational business'. Secondly, in order to explore the sorts of topics that students treated as legitimate for educational talk, episodes marked as 'off-topic' were explored. Patterns were identified in both types of topic production. The implications of conversation analytic methodology for the study of educational talk are considered, with particular emphasis on the importance of explicating participants' understandings of the activities in which they are engaged.

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