ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses conversation analysis (CA) is both a theoretical framework of and a methodological approach to social interaction. As a theoretical framework, it comes with a set of assumptions that prioritize participant orientations as made evident by the parties themselves in the very details of their interactional conduct. Rather than coding data, CA workers endeavor to crack the code of social interaction. The validity and reliability of CA findings are grounded in the quality of the recordings, the accuracy of the transcripts, and the routine engagement of group data sessions. Existing research on classroom discourse has furnished a strong knowledge base of the nature of classroom interaction as well as the relationship between classroom talk and learning. Conversation analytic work makes similar contributions. The chapter also focusses how conversation analytic insights may be calibrated to illuminate the issues and challenges of pedagogical interaction more broadly, including but not limited to classroom discourse.
