ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how a multimodal interaction perspective can contribute to the qualitative analysis of what gaze does in naturalistic interactions. It considers the kind of story that quantification can tell about gaze, and how the qualitative multimodal interaction study helps to address different kinds of questions. The chapter shows that gaze accomplishes work sequentially and throws light on the relevance of gaze in social interactions and considers two different representations of gaze. Both representations have been developed from a 10-minute interaction between Niko and his teacher, Katja Dindar. The first representation is a frequency table involving quantitative information, while the second is a multimodal transcript, providing qualitative information. The analysis of initiating and responsive actions informs about the sequential environment in which gaze occurs. In Heath's example, the doctor shifts his gaze to address the patient as he comes to the end of his utterance and the speaker transition becomes relevant.
