wall charts
conversation analysis comparative perspectives
conversation analysis is an approach to the study of social interaction that focuses on practices of speaking that recur across a range of contexts and settings . the early studies in this tradition were based on the analysis of english conversation . more recently however conversation analysts have begun to study talk in a broader range of communities around the world . through detailed analyses of recorded conversations this 2009 book examines differences and similarities across a wide range of languages including finnish japanese tzeltal mayan russian and mandarin . bringing together interrelated methodological and analytic contributions it explores topics such as the role of gaze in question and answer sequences the organization of repair and the design of responses to assessments . the emerging comparative perspective demonstrates how the structure of talk is inflected by the local circumstances within which it operates .