Konversationsanalys

Konversationsanalys is a qualitative research method used to examine spoken interaction. It originates from ethnomethodology, a field that studies how people make sense of their everyday social world. The primary focus of conversation analysis is on the structure and organization of talk itself, viewing conversation as a fundamentally social action. Researchers meticulously transcribe recordings of naturally occurring conversations, paying close attention to details such as pauses, overlaps, intonation, and laughter. These transcriptions are then analyzed to identify patterns in how participants manage turns, repair misunderstandings, and achieve particular social actions through their speech.

Key concepts in conversation analysis include turn-taking, which describes how speakers manage who speaks when and for how long; adjacency pairs, which are sequences of two utterances by different speakers that are related, such as a question followed by an answer; and repair, which refers to the ways participants correct or clarify what has been said. The method emphasizes the in-situ production of meaning, meaning that understanding emerges from the immediate context of the interaction rather than from pre-existing theories or assumptions about the speakers. Conversation analysis has been applied to a wide range of settings, including doctor-patient interactions, classroom talk, legal proceedings, and everyday conversations, to understand the practical, observable methods people use to accomplish social order.