TEDU-CAN Seminar by Dr. Nilüfer Can Daşkın

Using Conversation Analysis in Classroom Interaction Research

Dr. Nilüfer Can Daşkın

Classroom interaction research has a long history and has been carried out from
various perspectives. Whereas earlier studies of classroom interaction focused on the
observation and description of interaction using coding schemes, the later ones brought
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistic, sociocultural and interactional perspectives to the study of
classroom interaction. As part of the interactional approach, the use of Conversation Analysis
(CA) as a research methodology in classroom interaction studies has gained momentum with
a growing body of research offering findings and implications based on real naturally-
occurring classroom practices. It is now acknowledged that meanings and actions are co-
constructed in and through the interaction of the participants and understanding the actual
dynamics of classrooms is possible through the analysis of the micro-details of classroom
talk-in-interaction. As a methodology that requires a micro-analysis of naturally occurring
data on a turn-by-turn basis in a sequential environment from an emic perspective, CA can
potentially reveal the complexity of classroom interaction and the instructional practices
which may create learning opportunities and construct micro-moments of understanding.
Against this background, in this seminar, I aim to describe and demonstrate the steps involved
in conducting conversation analytic classroom interaction research with examples from
existing research: data collection, producing transcriptions, reviewing the research literature,
collection building, doing the analysis and eventually publishing the findings. The steps
involved in such research is not linear and requires a circular and recursive process for doing
robust analysis and offering empirical findings.