Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses how conversation analysis (CA) findings can contribute to building a theory of teaching, by explicating how teacher conduct can shape opportunities of learning, or put simply, what lies at the heart and soul of good teaching beyond technical aspects such as lesson planning and classroom management. CA offers a range of theoretical tools for analyzing social interaction. Earlier findings such as turn-constructional unit (TCU), transition-relevance place (TRP), adjacency pair (AP), and preference became conceptual tools for later discoveries. The intellectual giants of education, sociology, psychology, and applied linguistics over the past four decades have installed major advancement in our thinking about teaching and learning in the classroom. The principles of CCC - Competence, Complexity, Contingency each highlight a distinct aspect of pedagogical interaction that is of some relevance to student learning.