The relation between conversation and practical activity in educational and work settings Annalisa Sannino University of Salerno, Italy

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The relation between conversation and practical
activity in educational and work
settingsAnnalisa SanninoUniversity of Salerno,
Italy

• 16º InPLA - Intercâmbio de Pesquisas em
  Lingüística Aplicada
• Minicourse 2nd-5th of May 2007, São Paulo

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Research aim Facilitating and empowering efforts
in individuals and collectives through an in-dept
understanding of the relation between
conversation and activity
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Hypotheses Conversations leading to material and
durable changes in activities Potential uses of
discourse as an emancipatory resource
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Empirical studies Two traditional discursive
analytical studies One analysis of conversations
in DWR interventions Two methodological
inquiries on autobiographical ethnography of
conversations
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Study 1 Conversations and processes of learning
a trade within alternance vocational training
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Objective To introduce a methodology in order to
identify knowledge and processes of learning a
trade that emerge from on-the-job conversations
between master craftsmen and apprentices
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The context Two years training period Apprentices
acquire knowledge and know-how relevant to the
chosen profession and develop social skills to
face concrete work situations The professional
training domain examined here insulation of the
outer walls of a structure
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Data collection Unsolicited conversations for
avoiding distortion of the naturally occurring
interactions Selected pairs that had recently
begun working together and couldnt interact yet
according to an implicit mutual knowledge
Participants wore tape-recorders during two days
of work Reconstructions of the dialogues by
combining the recordings of the master craftsman
and the apprentice
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The analytical approach Interlocutionary logic
(IL) concept of speech act
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Characteristics of the speech acts Illocutionary
force (F) the pragmatic function of an utterance
(representative, directive, commissive,
expressive, and declarative) Propositional
content (p) the representation on which a given
force is applied
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Among the properties of the speech
acts Preparatory conditions what is
presupposed or assumed to be true by the speaker
who performs the act
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Satisfaction and success of speech acts A speech
act is satisfied if its p is true in the
context of the utterance, and because of this
utterance successful if the speaker manages to
get the listener to understand which act s/he is
performing
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Four organization levels of the
interlocutions Interventions complex speech
acts Exchange two or more interventions Structure
interventions and exchanges Transactions
interventions and structures
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Characteristics of the exchange Linear and
hierarchical linking between interventions
Linear linking components are sequential and
belong to the same speech level Hierarchical
linking components are bound by interdependent
relations
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Table of Interlocutionary Analysis - Excerpt 1
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Table of Interlocutionary Analysis - Excerpt 2
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Excerpt 3
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Conclusive remark Issue of lack of discursive
evidence and discontinuities in conversations
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Study 2 Analyzing an extreme example of
discontinuous speech in EU conversations
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Objectives Demonstrate that discontinuities,
more than general impressions, are analyzable
and foundational features of conversation Gaining
insights into an empirical procedure that allows
further analyses of this kind of conversational
discontinuities.
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"People talking together, conversation, is one
of the most mundane of all topics. It has been
available for ages, but only () in the early
1960s, has it gained the serious and sustained
attention of scientific investigation. () The
general impression was that ordinary conversation
is chaotic and disorderly. It was only with the
advent of recording devices, and the willingness
and ability to study such a mundane phenomenon in
depth, that the order of conversation () was
discovered" (Ten Have, 1999 4).
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Sequential organization based on continuity
as a fundamental assumption for analyses of
conversations, and largely used in CA and other
approaches
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The context A consultative institution of the
European Union, the Social and Economical
Committee (CES), responsible for the development
of a common opinion. A collective entity which
evolved step-by-step in four meetings of twelve,
ten, 65, and 212 participants respectively.
Participants had different competencies and
statuses, spoke different languages and
interacted through interpreters. The opinion
materialized progressively as a text written and
modified by a reporter.
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The opinion discussed in the meetings The CES
had to reach a conclusion about a report drawn up
by European Commission concerning the decisions
adopted within the framework of the Cohesion
Funds The 'Funds' was an instrument aimed at
reinforcing economic and social cohesion between
the EU Member States.
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Data collection
Video-recordings and transcriptions of each
meeting and audio-recordings of the simultaneous
French interpretations.
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The analytical approach Interlocutionary logic
(IL)
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• Advantages of using IL for analyzing the CES
  data over the other theories and methodologies
  available
• it conceptualizes also discontinuities (Trognon,
  1992),
• it allows analyses of multi-speaker discourse
  (Trognon and Kostulski, 1996),
• it can be applied also to long conversations and
  extensive corpora (in Batt et al., 2004)

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IL and speech act theory Basic elements of IL
are not individual speech acts, but rather
logical relations they maintain in the
interlocution
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"in conversation the function of the
illocutionary act accomplished first is
unspecified. This function can be determined only
later, looking at what goes on in the
interaction. () Thats why the conversation is
less the prototypical space of the use of
linguistic expressions. Admittedly it is that.
But it is especially the prototypical space of
the communicability of this use" (Trognon and
Brassac, 1992 85-86).
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Constitutional discontinuities of CES
conversations When participants can intervene,
they tend to 'pack in' into the same speaking
turn all that they have to say concerning the
text and/or the interventions carried out before
by the others
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Types of discontinuities
intra-intervention detected in synchronic
observations related to each speaking turn
inter-intervention detected in diachronic
observations related to the whole transcript and
potentially reciprocal behaviors evolving over
time
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Intra-intervention discontinuities (topical and
actional diversity of speaking turns)
B17 I would like to re-examine some remarks
and some questions which were formulated. First
of all, the report .... Here we are with regard
to the delay. Then, the implementation ....
Now, let us procede to the selection of projects
... . G13 ?...? it's an indirect question
through you, Chairman, to the Commission, when
they mention the potential new states, using
Cohesion Fund principles, there is no mention of
Cyprus ?...?.
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Inter-intervention discontinuities (when reactive
interventions are linked with distal
interventions)
H153 ?...?Well, in a telegraphic way, I will
make some suggestions, which could be taken into
account in this document. First, take the
synergies established between the cohesion funds
and the other structural funds. ?...?. ? Another
thing item 3.3 of this document is about the
reduction of the investment in natural protection
and the improvement of the urban environment. I
do not agree ?...? I do not know, for example for
Portugal which has a rather important wooded zone
and which is not reforested simply because the
questions of financing. ?...? ?...? B17 ?...?
Now as to synergy, we have many cases. ?...? we
will try to do our better by integrating more the
action planning ?...? ?...? E204 ?...? I would
wish to intervene briefly, starting from a remark
made by the expert of group 3, a person I respect
for his good knowledge of the relevant
mechanisms. When he speaks about synergy with
other funds, he referred to the wooded areas and
I will say that, I will tell the reporter not to
make it appear in 3.3 because synergies already
exist. ?...? The Commission said, these synergies
are being considered, this is part of the work of
the Commission to analyze these synergies. ?...?
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Conversations or puzzles? Conversations as
starting configuration of a puzzle, a pool of
units arranged in a different way than that of a
classic sequential organization usually ascribed
to conversations.
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Pieces of the puzzle or 'intervention
sections (units bounded on the basis of their
topics) Because the intervention sections
fulfilled their function only in assembling, it
is necessary to put them together, to rebuild the
puzzle, in order to find the sequences beneath
the entire corpus
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• Two readings of the transcript
• horizontal, by traversing the transcriptions to
  circumscribe the various intervention sections,
• vertical, by cycles, to follow interactional
  developments on each section

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Dissection of the transcript according to
topics What is being talked about? What does the
speaker do or put forward in his or her
talk? Categorization and representation of the
discursive flow Interventions aimed at developing
the form and content of the opinion (T), and
interventions dealing with meeting management and
task achievement (T)
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Flow of the topics directly (T) and indirectly
(T') concerned with the collective task during
the first meeting
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Conclusive remarks First step for identifying
and representing conversational
discontinuities Challenge understanding what are
the resources the participants employ and
mobilize to deal with discontinuous
conversations, and what are the consequences of
these discontinuities for the subject.
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For contacts

• Annalisa Sannino
• University of Salerno
• Department of Education
• Via Ponte Don Melillo
• 84084 Fisciano (SA) Italy
• E-mail ansannin_at_unisa.it