Conversation Analysis Melbourne Group

Catherine Roberts

The CA (Conversation Analysis) Melbourne Group meets once a month at 4:45pm on Friday to micro-analytically analyse interaction. Catherine went along to a session to find out more.

What happens at a typical CA data session?

A presenter will share a piece of data (a video or audio recording) from their research. The presenter will play the recording a few times for everyone to get some first impressions from the data. Then everyone gets a turn to share something they found interesting in the data (how the turns were taken, use of gestures, etc.). The group then decides which suggestion they want to focus on further, for example, the use of pointing. The group will then go through each example of the phenomena (or as many as feasible) and note what is particular about it and how it contributes to the interaction or raise further questions about the phenomenon. This process is repeated until they inevitably run out of time.

What do I need to do to participate?

If you’re joining in for the first time, it’s helpful to do some reading in CA before going to a session so you know some terminology (further reading suggestions are listed below). Otherwise, go along and have fun! New people are very much welcome and there’s no pressure to talk if you’re not comfortable yet.

If you want to present, you’ll need to ask the group’s coordinator when you can present. Make sure you’ve considered any ethical concerns about presenting the data before you ask! Once you have a date, then you’ll need to make sure you can easily play the data for everyone to see and hear. You’ll also need to provide a transcript of the data so everyone can follow along with the recording. The most important thing is to have each line numbered.

Who attends the CA Melbourne Group?

There’s a pretty good mixture of experience levels each month from master’s and PhD students through to senior researchers. There’re a lot of people from Melbourne University but it’s not a requirement to attend. Every now and then, there are guest presenters from around Australia and overseas.

When’s the next meeting?

The next meeting of the CA Melbourne group will be the 24th of June. If you’d like to join, please contact Michael Davey at daveym1@student.unimelb.edu.au.

Further readings:

ten Have, P. (2007). Doing conversation analysis. SAGE.

Hutchby, I. (2008). Conversation analysis.Polity.

Sidnell, J., & Stivers, T. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of conversation analysis. Wiley-Blackwell.