ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the historical dissatisfaction with speech act theory within pragmatics and how conversation analysis (CA) emerged as a solution to that dissatisfaction. It briefly explicates and illustrates CA findings on such fundamental conversational practices as turn-taking, sequencing, overall structuring, and repair. The chapter also outlines several areas of research within the study of conversation that are gaining increasing attention: conversation and children, conversation and embodied practices, and the teaching of pragmatics. The arrival of CA on the stage of pragmatics has clearly broadened the latter's scope beyond such traditional concerns as speech acts and politeness. Conversation analysts have reminded us of how embodied practices, such as gaze, gestures, and body movements, are perennially coordinated with talk in getting things done, and as such, an indispensable area of pragmatics as well. In the area of pragmatics, that means an understanding that does not overlook interactional dimension of conversation and the various interactional practices that are cornerstones of conversation.
