| Conversational analysis (CA) is a methodology for analyzing a broad range of speech exchange systems, or spoken interaction. This chapter begins by briefly describing what ethnomethodologically oriented conversation analysis is and then considers the intellectual roots of CA. It then describes how CA researchers typically set about developing analyses of interactional behaviors, and shows how such analyses may be used to address questions that are of interest to specialists in applied linguistics (AL) and second language acquisition (SLA) studies. Finally, it outlines some of the major issues and problems that must be addressed if CA is to become widely accepted in AL and SLA studies. |