Language and Social Interaction is important for anyone who wants to understand how social interaction is organised. Students are given every opportunity to hear and analyse social interaction, such as ordinary everyday conversations, and to collect their own conversations for analysis. Students whose first language is not English will be able to collect and analyse social interaction data from their own language. There is a strong language and social interaction research culture at ANU. Students will be given every opportunity to learn from these more experienced researchers through seminars, data analysis sessions, and the fortnightly Discourse Analysis Group.

This course is compulsory for graduate students who wish to undertake further research (thesis or sub-thesis) in the area of language and social interaction, discourse analysis, conversation analysis or applied conversation analysis. It is also recommended for graduate students who wish to undertake further research in critical discourse analysis. Students should consult with the Convenor of Applied Linguistics or their potential supervisor as to whether or not they should take the course.

By the end of this course, you should be able to

1. Collect examples of naturally-occurring everyday interaction.
2. Transcribe examples of naturally-occurring everyday interaction, using conversation analysis transcription conventions.
3. Explain, and argue for, the structural ‘rules' of everyday interaction, e.g. rules for ensuring that only one person talks at a time, rules for opening and closing conversations, rules for determining what is a ‘turn at talk' and rules for determining the structural organisation of these turns at talk.
4. Work in a group to analyse how interaction is structured.
5. Think about, write and present an argument using the methodology of conversation analysis.
6. Critique other methods of analysing discourse (non-assessed).

Assessment consists of

a transcription assignment (10%) due Week 6,(LO1)

two critical summaries (750 words each) (10%) due Weeks 4 and 7, (LO 3, 5, 6)

group assignment (1000 words) (35%) due Week 11,(LO 3, 4, 5)

final project (3000 words) (45%) due in the exam period.(LO 1,2,3,4,5)

Passing of the course is conditional on students passing all assessment items.

This course has 3 contact hours per week (lectures and tutorials). In addition, students are required to attend the fortnightly Discourse Analysis Group seminar.

In addition to the required contact hours (lectures, tutorials and Discourse Analysis Group), it is expected that students will spend an additional 8-10 hours per week on this course.

There are no courses that must be taken prior to or concurrently with this course.

This course introduces graduate students to social interaction and the methodology of conversation analysis. Students are not required to complete any prior course before enrolling in this course.

Liddicoat, A. (2007) An Introduction to Conversation Analysis. Continuum.

Psathas, G. (1995) Conversation Analysis: The Study of Talk in Interaction. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Other than normal internet access to Wattle, no special equipment is required to access materials to complete the course. Students will be instructed as to how to download (and use) computer software (freeware) called Audacity as this program is useful when transcribing interaction data.