Social Interaction. Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality

Distributed Cognition in Fractured Ecologies

Sakari Ilomäki, Melisa Stevanovic — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In this article we present a conversation analytic case study of a video-mediated teleconsultation in which the participants face a problem with the audio connection. During the problem-solving process the interactants need to direct one another’s attention and action in relation to technological artefacts to solve the problem. Video mediation limits physical access to distant participants’ physical ecology, which is overcome by fitting interactional practices to the communicative medium available at a given moment. Drawing on insights from the distributed cognition perspective and the CA perspective on participation, multimodality, and epistemics, we propose specifications to existing theories of problems solving, seeking to develop integrative approaches to real-world problem solving.

Walking with Gail

Darren Reed, Jessica Young, Robin Wooffitt — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

By analysing the movements through space of a famous conversation analyst delivering a well-known lecture, this paper reveals the creative construction of space within the social and physical constraints of the lecture hall, and in so doing contributes to the embodied analysis of humans in material environments. While founded in a multimodal or embodied conversation analysis, it uses terminology and insights from dance to help ‘see’ and analyse the movements as ‘footwork’ and ‘figures’.

On Unplanned Educational Activities in the Preschool

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This article concerns a learning environment in a preschool which includes a preschool teacher and two bilingual children. The article details how an activity of counting is introduced in the course of packing up a game and increasingly turns into an activity of calculation. Thereby the activity engages the participants to demonstrate their competences in terms of language and mathematics rather than (merely) manipulating, arranging and counting objects. The analysis thus exemplifies how, by the use of language as a resource, an interaction in a preschool occasions an activity that may be seen as aiming at a transition between preschool and primary school. Simultaneously, however, it becomes clear that, possibly because this is an unplanned activity, the outcome of this activity may be unequally beneficial for the participants.

Collaborative Problem Solving and Literacy Practices

Sabria Salama Jawhar, Alia Amir, Rizwan-ul Huq, Simon Stewart — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Online video gaming has developed from a hobby to a ubiquitous, social and leisure phenomenon. Roblox, a free-to-play, online sandbox platform has thrived in this time, with a substantial global userbase, where the majority of Roblox users are under 16 years old. Using video recorded data from single case, this study examines the ways in which two preteen players collaboratively participate, solve problems, and share strategies during a pre-gaming interaction. The analysis highlights the affordances of this form of online play for social and language learning. Using Multimodal Conversation Analysis, this study explores how participants leverage cooperative learning strategies including mutual scaffolding techniques and fluidity of epistemic participation that includes material ecology, knowledge exchange, joint problem solving, instructing, and help-seeking. The analysis elucidates a relationship between these pre-gaming activities and participants’ utilization of resources for learning related to language, technology, literacy, and teamwork.