Conversation analysis: principles, practices and applications

Talk is a central activity in social life. But how is ordinary talk organized? How do people coordinate their talk in interaction? And what is the role of talk in wider social processes? Conversation analysis has developed over the past thirty years as a key method for studying social interaction and language use. Its unique perspective and systematic methods make it attractive to a multidisciplinary audience. Yet while much has been written about the field, little of this is designed to be accessible to the undergraduate student encountering this area for the first time.

In this book Ian Hutchby and Robin Wooffitt offer the first wide-ranging, accessible introduction to the field. The book offers a basic grounding in the theory and methods of conversation analysis and demonstrates its usefulness by analysing a variety of concrete examples. With an emphasis on practical demonstrations, they show how it addresses key questions in social science and in other professional fields such as human-computer interaction, political communication and speech therapy.

Conversation Analysis is written in a lively, engaging and jargon-free style, and will be indispensable reading for undergraduates and their teachers on courses in sociology, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, social psychology, communication studies and anthropology.

Ian Hutchby is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communication at Brunel University. Robin Wooffitt is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey.