Abstract This thesis examines how co-present participants manage intervening courses of action in social interaction. It is comprised of a summary and three original papers, which focus on 1) activity suspensions, in which participants temporarily suspend an ongoing activity in favour of an emergent, intervening course of action, and 2) activity resumptions, in which participants resume the suspended activity once the intervention has been dealt with. Using video-recorded, everyday interactions in English and Finnish as data and conversation analysis as the method, this study explores the complex relations between linguistic form, sequence organisation and body behaviour, and how these may work together to constitute activity suspensions and resumptions in interaction. The thesis identifies recurrent multimodal practices that participants use and orient to when they negotiate transitions into, and out of, intervening courses of action in two different environments, namely in conversational (story)tellings and in ‘multiactivity’ situations (in which participants become involved in more than one activity at the same time). Importantly, the study shows how the body provides a powerful resource for projecting and negotiating these transitions subtly and flexibly, thus enabling participants to maintain a smooth flow of interaction and activities and to avoid overt interactional conflicts in the face of discontinuities and abrupt changes in unfolding interaction. The study provides new information on the construction of activity suspensions and resumptions in interaction by describing them holistically, as linguistic, prosodic and embodied accomplishments. It also sheds new light on some of the practices involved in how participants coordinate their activities and involvements in situations in which multiple relevancies may be at stake. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessani tarkastelen vuorovaikutuksen keinoja, joiden avulla osallistujat käsittelevät keskeytyksiä sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimus koostuu yhteenveto-osuudesta ja kolmesta artikkelista, jotka tarkastelevat kahta siirtymäkohtaa: 1) keskeyttävien toimintajaksojen aloitusta, eli meneillään olevan toimintalinjan keskeytymistä toisen vuoksi, ja 2) keskeytyneeseen toimintaan paluuta sen jälkeen kun kilpaileva toimintalinja on saatettu päätökseen. Aineisto koostuu videoiduista englannin- ja suomenkielisistä arkikeskusteluista, joita tutkin keskustelunanalyyttista menetelmää käyttäen. Kuvaan työssäni kielellisen muodon, toimintajaksojen ja kehonkäytänteiden välisiä kompleksisia suhteita ja yhteispeliä keskeytymisen ja paluun rakentumisessa. Aineistossa esiintyy systemaattisia, multimodaalisia käytänteitä, joiden avulla osallistujat neuvottelevat ja merkitsevät meneillään olevan ja keskeyttävän toimintalinjan välisiä siirtymiä kahdessa eri kontekstissa: kerrontavuoroissa ja monitoimintatilanteissa, eli tilanteissa, joissa on meneillään useampi yhtäaikainen toimintajakso. Yksi keskeisimmistä havainnoistani on, että kehon resurssit ovat tärkeässä roolissa näissä siirtymissä, sillä ne mahdollistavat osallistujien välisen neuvottelun hienovaraisin keinoin ja tulevaa siirtymää ennakoiden ja pitävät näin yllä sujuvaa vuorovaikutuksen kulkua myös disjunktiivisten ja ennakoimattomien toimintalinjojen lomassa. Tutkimukseni tuottaa uutta tietoa keskeyttävistä toimintajaksoista ja paluukäytänteistä holistisella lähestymistavallaan eli tarkastelemalla niitä kielellisesti, prosodisesti ja kehollisesti rakentuvina kokonaisuuksina. Lisäksi se tarjoaa uuden näkökulman osallistujien neuvottelukäytänteisiin tilanteissa, joissa nämä koordinoivat toimintaansa ja osallistujuuttaan useamman meneillään olevan toimintalinjan kesken.

A presente dissertação analisa como se configura a Competência Interacional (He; Young, 1998) de aprendizes adultos brasileiros durante um curso de italiano durante conversa espontânea. Os dados foram coletados durante um semestre, com foco em conversas livres, isto é, em interações imprevisíveis, sem duração definida e cujos temas nasciam a partir de algum acontecimento em sala de aula, sem planejamento prévio. A análise dos dados teve dois focos principais: a análise do sistema de turnos e dos reparos, procurando verificar de que forma a construção desses recursos determina aspectos da interação e do desempenho de papeis de professor e de aluno em sala de aula. Os dados foram analisados com base na disciplina, fortemente empírica, da Análise da Conversa; de modo mais específico, foram utilizadas as categorias encontradas por Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974) e por Schegloff, Jefferson e Sacks (1977), para análise do sistema de turnos e dos reparos, respectivamente. A análise dos dados indicou que os aprendizes utilizaram o sistema de turnos de forma parecida com o da conversa fora da sala de aula, já que na maioria dos casos se auto-selecionam como próximos falantes, o que nos levou a identificar uma postura autônoma e a percepção, por parte dos aprendizes, de um ambiente mais próximo ao genuíno de comunicação. Por outro lado, nota-se que os turnos dos aprendizes têm, quase sempre, menor duração do que os do professor, possivelmente, por causa de uma menor competência linguístico-comunicativa. Os dados evidenciam ainda, que os alunos utilizam pouco, muito menos que o professor, a seleção de um outro falante. Quanto à análise do sistema de reparos, verificaram-se duas tendências principais. Em primeiro lugar, os alunos, frequentemente, pedem para ser corrigidos, mas, ao mesmo tempo, há muitas ocorrências em que eles não esperam que alguém responda a esses pedidos e continuam a conversa. Em segundo lugar, o professor, na maioria dos casos, não corrige os desvios linguísticos dos alunos e, quando o faz, não parece existir uma lógica que guie essas ações. Se olharmos com mais atenção para os dados analisados, configura-se uma situação complexa, em que os alunos, por exemplo, corrigem outros alunos, ou em que eles interrompem o professor. Em conclusão, a detalhada análise das interações evidencia que, em vários momentos, os papeis de professor e alunos estão bem marcados, mas estão longe de ser os papeis tradicionais em que o professor é quem avaliava e distribui os turnos, e os alunos estão em posição mais passiva. Isso nos permite afirmar que a conversa é uma atividade de sala de aula em que os participantes têm liberdade de ação e na qual os recursos interacionais são aspectos essenciais não apenas na configuração da interação, como também na construção da competência interacional dos aprendizes e na compreensão do processo de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas em sala de aula. / This study analyzes the nature of Interactional Competence (He; Young, 1998) of adult Brazilian learners, attending a Italian language course, during spontaneous conversation. The data, collected during a semester, focused on unplanned conversations, which had no defined duration and whose topics emerged from anything occurring in the classroom. The analysis of the data consists of two main foci: speaker selection and repairs. They were analyzed in order to verify how their construction could determine aspects of interaction and how it influences the roles that the professor and the learners play in the classroom. The data were analyzed based on the, strictly empirical, discipline of Conversation Analysis; in particular, were used the categories found by Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974), and Schegloff, Jefferson e Sacks (1977), for speaker selection and repair, respectively. The analysis of the data revealed that the learners use speaker selection in a way that similar to that outside classroom, that is to say, they mainly selected themselves in order to take the floor. This learners skill is viewed as evidence of autonomous stance; furthermore, it indicates that they perceive the classroom as characterized by genuine communication. On the other hand, it can be noticed that learners turns are mainly shorter than professors, probably due to their lesser linguistic-communicative competence. In addition, the data show that the learners select the other participants fewer times than the teacher. Examination of the system of repairs revealed two main trends. Firstly, in spite of the fact that the learners frequently ask for a linguistic repair, they frequently do not wait for somebody to realize that repair and keep on speaking. Secondly, the teacher, in most of the cases, does not repair the learners linguistic problems and when it occurs, the fact does not seem to be supported by any underlying logic. At a closer look, the data show a complex situation in which the learners use the other-repair resource or interrupt the teacher. Finally, the detailed conversation analysis shows that even though many times the roles teacher and learners play are well defined, they are not even close to the traditional ones in which the teacher used to evaluate and distribute the turns, and the learners had a passive attitude. The analysis serve as evidence to affirm that conversation is a classroom activity in which students can perform freely and in which the interactional resources are aspects essential, not only to better understand and categorize the interaction, but also to the construction of the learners interactional competence and for the understanding of the foreign language classroom teaching process.

Ce travail se situe à la croisée de la didactique des langues étrangères [L2], des sciences de l'éducation et de la psychologie sociale. L'hypothèse de départ porte sur la possibilité que des enseignants de L2 montrent, face aux apprenants et au cours d'une rencontre en classe de L2, des comportements allant au-delà de leurs fonctions institutionnelles d'organiser, faciliter et participer à la communication. Il est question caractériser la manière dont des enseignants de L2 se représentent leur métier. Nous travail adhérons ainsi au courant des études sur la cognition des enseignants qui explorent leurs croyances hétéroclites. Nous avons d'abord observé des rencontres en classe de L2 en présentiel que nous avons ensuite analysées à la manière de l'analyse conversationnelle. Le recours à l'analyse conversationnelle nous a permis de déterminer la manière dont les participants co-construisent la rencontre en classe de L2. Certaines des pratiques repérées chez l'enseignant, telles que la désaffiliation, la légitimation du rire, ont été caractérisées comme des actions motivées par ses croyances. Enfin, le recours à des entretiens d'auto-confrontation a permis de confronter les enseignants avec leur propre pratique afin qu'ils la commentent selon leur logique et leur ressenti. Ce dispositif a rendu possible un dialogue entre le chercheur et les enseignants grâce auquel leur savoir-être enseignant a été caractérisée finement. / This work is at the crossroads of applied linguistics – namely foreign language [L2] teaching – education studies and social psychology. Its ultimate goal is to characterize the way in which L2 teachers represent their profession. This work draws on teachers' cognition studies in order to explore the heterogeneous beliefs of teachers. It also draws on conversation analysis [CA]: the classroom observation conducted in four fields has produced recordings that have become L2 classroom transcripts. The use of CA has helped to determine the participants' attitude as they coconstruct the situation in which they participate – namely a L2 classroom, which constitutes, in principle, an institutional setting. As regards the L2 teachers, the identification of certain practices – their disaffiliation, their choice of subject, their legitimation of laughter – indicates the possibility that they have made certain decisions according to the manner in which they co-manage the classroom situation, but also in relation to their own beliefs. Finally, we use recall-interviews, by means of which the teachers are confronted the teachers with their own practice; this may conduce to their characterising their own actions according to a certain pedagogical logic, but also according to their feelings. By means of integrating these three sources of information a dialogue between the teachers and the researcher has become possible; this dialogue has allowed for a fine description of the teachers' teaching know-how.

El siguiente trabajo pretende analizar el nivel de desarrollo de la competencia pragmática en usuarios nativos y no-nativos del español con origen chileno y sueco respectivamente. Se han analizado una serie de conversaciones telefónicas endolingües y exolingües y se han comparado en términos de longitud y en organización de sus secuencias de negociación. Por otro lado, también se ha observado en detalle la cantidad y tipología de marcadores lingüísticos de mitigación utilizados en ambos grupos. A partir de dicho análisis conversacional comparativo se pretendió determinar en qué medida un usuario no nativo de nivel avanzado en español inmerso en una cultura hispanohablante ha logrado dominar la segunda lengua en términos del dominio del discurso y el uso funcional de los recursos lingüísticos de acuerdo a un cierto escenario de intercambio comunicativo. Como resultado se han observado diferencias entre los usuarios nativos y no-nativos en relación con la producción de marcadores de mitigación pero no en la longitud y organización secuencial de las conversaciones. / The following paper aims at analyzing the level of development of pragmatic competence among native and nonnative Spanish speakers from Chile and Sweden. A series of endolinguistic and exolinguistic phone conversations have been analyzed and compared with regard to their length and the organization of negotiation sequences. Also, the amount and types of linguistic mitigation markers used in both groups have been accounted for. The overall aim of this comparative study in conversation analysis is to determine in which way nonnative advanced Spanish L2 speakers immersed in a Hispanic culture have been able to master the second language in terms of discourse command and functional use of linguistic resources in a given communicative activity type. Differences were found between native and nonnative speakers with regard to mitigation markers production but not in the length and organization sequence of the conversations.

When an individual’s ability to communicate with speech does not function as expected, in many cases, augmentative and alternative communication, (AAC), can serve as a support interaction with other persons. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a specific child’s communicative possibilities and abilities develop during the first months after introducing a speech generating device. The study’s main participant Alex is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. Alex also has confirmed limitations regarding gross and fine motor skills and further investigation will examine the presence of childhood apraxia of speech. Two play situations were videotaped at approximately four months intervals and then analysed via conversation analysis and multimodal interaction analysis. At the study’s initial recording session Alex’ communication consisted of gestures and body language together with isolated vocalisations. There were no observed occurrences of spoken words. At the start of the study Alex had been using their speech generating device, SGD, for approximately six weeks. At the end of the study the SGD is found to have been integrated in Alex’ communication during the observed play situations. Its role as a communicative resource has developed from being primarily a device which the child presses in order to answer direct questions, into being used to organise, for example, turn taking, initiate new play rounds or asking questions, by way of other types of manipulation. In addition, Alex’ use of vocalisations has increased and become more situation specific. Baseline measurements were not conducted in this study, wherefore it is not possible to indicate the implementation of an SGD as the reason for Alex’ communicative development. Continued research is needed in order to achieve individual and optimum solutions for all who are dependent on support in their communication. / När en individs möjligheter att kommunicera med tal av någon anledning inte fungerar som förväntat kan i många fall alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation, förkortat AKK, fungera som ett stöd i interaktionen med andra människor. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett specifikt barns kommunikativa möjligheter och förmågor utvecklas under de första månaderna efter att ett högteknologiskt AKK introducerats. Studiens huvuddeltagare Alex är 6 år och har diagnoserna autism i barndomen och ADHD. Alex har även konstaterade grov- och finmotoriska begränsningar och vidare undersökningar kommer att undersöka förekomst av verbal dyspraxi. Två leksituationer videofilmades med cirka fyra månaders mellanrum och analyserades sedan med samtalsanalys och multimodal interaktionsanalys. Vid studiens inledande inspelning utgjordes Alex kommunikation av gester och kroppsspråk samt enstaka vokaliseringar. Inga talade ord förekom. Vid studiens slut konstateras att hAKK vid den observerade leksituationen integrerats i Alex kommunikation. Dess roll som kommunikativ resurs har utvecklats från att främst vara en apparat som barnet trycker på för att svara på direkta frågor, till att genom annan typ av manipulering exempelvis organisera turtagning, initiera en ny lekomgång och ställa frågor. Även Alex användning av vokaliseringar i leksituationen har ökat och blivit mer situationsspecifika. Alex mamma och en av hens förskollärare intervjuades och besvarade skattningsfrågor. Resultaten visar att de båda noterat en generellt ökad vilja till kommunikation hos Alex samt lyfter frågan om vilka begränsningar som fortfarande finns gällande Alex kommunikativa möjligheter vid studiens slut. Baselinemätningar saknas i denna studie, varför det inte är möjligt att ange implementeringen av hAKK som orsak till Alex kommunikativa utveckling. Fortsatt forskning behövs för att kunna uppnå individuella och optimala lösningar för alla som är beroende av stöd i sin kommunikation.

A partir des données contextualisées, extraites d’ESLO, un corpus oral du français contemporain, cette thèse étudie la variation dans l’actualisation des discours représentés (rapportés), avec une double finalité : rendre compte, par un modèle théorique, de leur complexité structurale dans le contexte des interactions orales et analyser leur influence sur la construction des liens interlocutifs et des trajectoires thématiques.Après avoir délimité les frontières externes du phénomène et situé le concept de discours représenté par rapport à plusieurs approches linguistiques et extralinguistiques qui reflètent sa complexité épistémologique, cette étude s’engage dans deux directions. La première, formelle, proposera une définition des discours représentés en tant que constructions grammaticales, définies par l’inséparabilité de trois critères : la structure bipartite, le décalage énonciatif et le fonctionnement métadiscursif. L’apport principal d’une telle analyse se précise dans la réinterprétation des liens entre le « discours citant » et le « discours cité », étudiés dans une perspective macrosyntaxique qui s’applique à toute la variation dans l’actualisation des discours représentés en contexte des interactions orales. La seconde direction, qui se rapporte aux liens entre les discours représentés et la construction d’une relation interlocutive, présente l’étude de plusieurs configurations de discours représentés en contexte, avec deux finalités : l’étude du rapport à autrui, l’interlocuteur, moyennant la mise en scène et l’illusion d’authenticité véhiculées par le discours représenté et l’étude du rapport à soi-même, le locuteur, par la construction d’une image de soi à travers les interventions dans la reconstruction des paroles autres. / Based on a contextualized data extracted from ESLO, an oral corpus of modern French, this PhD thesis examines the variation in the actualization of represented (reported) speech, with a double aim: to account for their structural complexity in oral interaction and to analyze their influence on the construction of the interlocutive relation and thematic paths.After defining the external borders of the phenomenon and placing the concept of represented speech with regard to several linguistic and non-linguistic approaches that reflect its epistemological complexity, this study engages in two directions. The first one, formal, will define represented speech as grammatical constructions, determined by the inseparability of three criteria: the bipartite structure, the enunciation offset and the metadiscursive functioning. The main contribution of this analysis is being illustrated in the reinterpretation of the link between “quoting discourse” and “quoted discourse”, analyzed in the macrosyntactic perspective that applies to all occurrences of represented speech in oral interaction. The second direction, which relates to the links between represented speech and the construction of an interlocutive relation, studies several represented speech configurations in context, with two aims: the study of the relation to the interlocutor, through the staging and the authenticity illusion conveyed by represented speech, and the study of the relation to oneself, the speaker, constructing a self-image through his interventions in the reconstruction of other words.

Cette thèse questionne les manifestations de la convergence (i.e. le rapprochement entre les productions des participants) au niveau interactionnel. Pour cela, les termes d'alignement (défini en rapport avec l'activité en cours) et d'affiliation (l'expression d'un même stance par les participants) sont empruntés à l'Analyse Conversationnelle. Le corpus utilisé est le CID-Corpus of Interational Data, corpus de conversation (interaction non-contrainte, hautement coopérative et globalement symétrique).Nous interrogeons le lien entre la convergence et la similarité lexicale, grâce à l'analyse d'une collection de 300 hétéro-répétitions (recueillie grâce à un outil d'aide au repérage des répétitions). Nous proposons ensuite une analyse quantitative de l'évolution des réponses des auditeurs, puis une analyse qualitative de discours rapportés directs, phénomènes susceptibles de faire émerger de l'affiliation. Nous montrons que les hétéro-répétitions lexicales et les discours rapportés « en écho » (discours rapportés produits par l'auditeur de la narration) peuvent être utilisés (entre autres) pour exprimer l'alignement et l'affiliation, ce qui, en cas de ratification, crée les conditions propices à l'émergence d'un moment de convergence interactionnelle. Nous montrons également que ces mêmes phénomènes peuvent servir à créer le désalignement temporaire nécessaire à l'engagement dans une séquence oblique convergente. Ainsi, ce travail décrit l'établissement et le fonctionnement de séquences convergentes, à travers l'étude de phénomènes interactionnels méconnus. / This thesis investigates the manifestations of convergence (i.e. the rapprochement between the participants' productions) at the level of interaction. With this aim, the terms of alignment (defined in relation to the current activity) and affiliation (display of the same stance by both participants) are borrowed from Conversation Analysis. The conversational corpus (non-constrained, highly cooperative and globally symmetrical interaction) used is the CID-Corpus of Interactional Data. Firstly, the link between convergence and lexical similarity is investigated thanks to the analysis of a collection of 300 other-repetitions (collected using a tool to assist in the detection of OR). Secondly, storytelling is studied and a quantitative analysis of the evolution of listeners' responses is proposed together with a qualitative analysis of direct reported speech phenomena, which are likely to make affiliation emerge. These analyses show that lexical other-repetitions and "echo" reported speech (reported speech which is produced by the listener of the narrative) can be used by participants to, inter alia, express alignment and affiliation, which, in case of ratification, creates the adequate conditions for the emergence of interactional convergence. The same phenomena can be used to create the temporary disalignment necessary to engage in an oblique (and potentially convergent) sequence. This work then describes the establishment and the conduct of convergent sequences through the analysis of interactional phenomena.

No description available.

Mirja Unge is a Swedish author who often writes about young people and the tough situations they face. She writes both plays and short-stories and is acclaimed for her dialogue. The aim of this essay is to examine Unge’s dialogue style and how potential face-threatening situations are portrayed. To reach my aim I pose questions regarding the conversational support in two of Unge’s literary works, the short story Det var igår bara and the play Mariella and compare the result. The dialogues analysed both tackle the sensitive subject of sexual assault, a topic that is potentially face-threatening. The analysis is based on the theoretical and methodical framework of conversation analysis. The conversational support is analysed through “keys” that unlock interesting points in the conversation. The keys in this essay are ‘topic generation’ and ‘topic shifts’. The results show that in the text with the most conversational support (the short story) the subject of assault is avoided and only appear in the characters thoughts. In the play on the other hand there is very little conversational support, but the character tells the whole story in a direct manner. This indicates that the situation in the short story is more face-threatening than in the play. However there are other aspects in the dialogue that makes the conversation difficult for the characters in both stories.

Följande studie utforskar hur kulturella stereotyper framställs genom interaktionen under två separata intervjuer i talkshowen Malou Efter Tio. Programledaren Malou von Sivers har fått kritik för hur hon intervjuar två rapartister med skilda kulturella bakgrunder. Greekazo som associeras med minoritetsbefolkningen och Einár som associeras med majoritetsbefolkningen. Studien undersöker och jämför interaktionerna i de två intervjuerna utifrån teorierna samtalsanalys, intersektionalitet och olika koncept för representation i media. Analysen genomförs med samtalsanalys som metod och utgår från två separata transkriberingar av materialet. Resultatet visar att Malou von Sivers samspel med de två gästerna skiljer sig, där båda intervjuerna formar stereotypa uppfattningar kring rappgenren. Genom slutdiskussionen förs en diskussion om att det sker en problematisk representation av båda rapartisterna. Framför allt eftersom det upprättas en skillnad mellan rapartisterna genom intervjuerna då de tillskrivs olika egenskaper som baseras på deras etniska tillhörighet. Detta visar på starka maktrelationer som existerar i talkshowen och också på hur ojämlikhet som finns i samhället uppkommer i programmet. Utifrån vårt resultat kan vår studie synliggöra och uppmärksamma hur samtalsstrukturen i den här talkshowen flätas samman med maktstrukturen i vårt samhälle. / The following study examines how cultural stereotypes are reproduced through the interaction during two separate interviews from the talk show Malou Efter Tio. The host Malou von Sivers has been criticized for how she is interviewing two rap artists with different cultural backgrounds. Greekazo, associated with the minority population and Einár, associated with the majority population. The study examines and compare the two interviews based on the theories conversation analysis, intersectionality and several concept of representation in media. Conversation analysis is also used as a method and the analyzation is based on two separate transcriptions of the material. The results showed that Malou von Sivers interplay between two guests were different, however both interviews reproduce stereotypical perceptions about the rap genre. Furthermore, the results are discussed which shows that both representations of the rap artist are problematic. Especially since a difference is established between the rap artists through the interviews as they are attributed different characteristics based on their ethnicity. This shows the strong power relations that exist in the talk show and also how inequality that exist in our society arises in the program. Based on our results, our study exposes and pays attention to how the conversational structure of this talk show is intertwined with the power structure in our society.