ABSTRACT

Though many doctor-patient interviews begin with an opening phase consisting of mutual identification and a series of rapport-building utterances, these encounters must at some point shift to the task at hand-the question-answer or information-gathering phase. When the coparticipants reach the point in the encounter when they must make the transition from the opening phase to the task phase of the interaction, they must do so interactionally. In other words, at least one of the participants in the interaction must display to the other an intention to move to the task of the interaction. Both participants must then coordinate their actions (vocal and physical) such that the transition is coaccomplished.