Reader:
Available at Westwood Copies -- 1001 Galey, Suite 104 (tel. 208-3233)

Supplies:
During the quarter you will need:
·transparencies with erasable marker
·VHS tapes for a Palmcorder
·VHS tapes for segments from your original VHS tapes

Class Format:
Discussion of Readings
Data Seminars
Group Assignments which will be Presented and Discussed in Class
Final Project which may be individual or group

The Course in a Nutshell
As human beings we are profoundly social animals. Most of our lives are spent interacting, either directly or indirectly, with other human beings. Language, the uniquely human ability which defines our species, is central to this process. Until fairly recently the detailed study of how human beings use language to build their social worlds in face-to-face interaction was largely ignored. That situation has now been changed by exciting research which transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries in the human sciences. This course will introduce students to:

1) Research on how human beings use language in everyday settings to build in concert with each other the events within which we live our lives. and
2) The methods which have made such research possible.

Students will not only read some of the important research in this area but will also learn how to:

1) Videotape human interaction in natural settings
2) Make audio transcripts of the talk they record
3) Explore different ways of transcribing the visual features of such interaction (including intonation, body behavior and features of the setting).
4) Organize the materials they have collected into analytical papers.

We will work together on materials which can become your final papers throughout the course, with different classes devoted to field observation, audio transcription, learning how to record video and sound in everyday settings, discovering the boundaries of natural events in your tapes, making collections, and writing up your findings. Throughout the course we will spend a lot of time in a seminar format, working first on data provided by the instructor, and then going over your own tapes. Your grade will be based on your work on the assignments leading up your final paper, and the paper itself, as well as contributions to class discussion.

Class Assignments

Week 1

M Mar 31 Introduction:
Overview of the field and examples of different research sites.

Assignment #1: The class will be divided into small teams of 3. Each team will go to a public place (a fast food restaurant such as McDonald's for example) and observe multiple instances of a repetitive speech event (for example ordering a meal at the counter). Each team will then write a brief report about what they have observed, These reports are due on Monday, April 7. (Unfortunately I will be out of town in the PM of April 2-April 6; do your best despite all odds!!) Use Transparencies for diagrams of the use of space and other relevant aspects of the setting. (The articles will give you ideas about ritual aspects of interaction.)

· For this assignment there will be no audio or video recording. However you might shoot some still photos showing the setting and typical arrangements of participants. You are not required to shoot photos and a report without any is perfectly acceptable Don't photograph people without their permission. Don't in any way disrupt the setting or intrude into the activities that people are engaged in.
· Try to capture as accurately as possible precisely what is said in the speech event you've chosen to observe.
· Where does the speech even occur? Draw a map and use it to help analyze how the spatial organization of the setting helps to structure the talk that occurs there (for example does talk between customer and salesperson occur just anywhere or only at specific places? How can participants find and recognize these places?)
· How does it begin and end?
· Are there repetitive sequences?
· Does the talk that occurs take the form of complete sentences? If not is it incomprehensible?
· What resources do the participants use to make sense out of the talk such that they can understand it in an appropriate way?
· How are the bodies of the participants configured toward each other?
· Where do the participants look? At each other? At other features of the setting such as menus and price lists? At tools such as cash registers? When do they look at different things? Do all of the participants (e.g. the customer v. the sales person) look at the same things? Do they all have equal access to the phenomena that their coparticipants are paying attention to?
· Does some of the looking that is relevant to the placing of an order occur before the participants talk to each other? What implications does this have for how you will locate the boundaries of the event you are studying?
· What is the mood and affect of the people involved in the transaction? Why do you think they have the effect they do? Are the facial expressions, talk and mood displays of for example the sales person primarily the manifestation of internal emotional states or socially organized phenomena?
· Discuss some of the strengths and weakness of observation like this as a methodology for studying everyday language ethnographically? Do you wish that you had had other ways of recording data? What kinds of analysis would a videotape record make possible? What problems would trying to tape in such a setting pose? If you could tape where would place a camera (or cameras)? Why? Where would you put your microphone?

Possible Additional Observations - By no means required.
· How do customers seat themselves at their tables after they get their orders? For ethical reasons DO NOT try to overhear the conversations of groups at tables.
° Do recognizable social groups, such as couples and families have distinctive seating patterns.
° Will a couple seat themselves next to each other or across from each other?
° How will they seat themselves when there are several couples in the same group?
° If you see families where does the mother sit with reference to the children? The father?
° How are you able to recognize social categories like "mother" "father" "her children" "dating couples" etc. in the first place?

W Apr. 2 Ritual Elements of Encounters
Reading: Goffman: "On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction"
Goffman: "Supportive Interchanges"
Data Seminar Storytelling

Week 2

M Apr 7. Social Organization in Service Encounters
Reading: Kendon: "Behavioural Foundations for the Process of Frame Attunement in Face-to-Face Interaction"

Assignment #1 DUE: Observation Assignment due.
This will form the basis for class discussion.
Assignment #2 Transcription Assignment handed out - You will be asked to transcribe a small section of audio tape. Assignment #2 is due on Monday, April 14.

W Apr 9 Hands-on camera session with Daniel Bustos in Haines 312
Daniel Bustos is Technical Assistant, Audio Visual Services. His office is:
B103 Campbell Hall
206-4104 dbustos@ucla.edu

We will divide into 5 groups of 3 for session with SVHS Palmcorder. You can have the Palmcorder from April 14 - May 14 ; after that date other classes will be using them.
Reading: Goodwin: "Recording Human Interaction in Natural Settings"
Goffman: "Role Distance"

Assignment Think about the setting and speech event that you want to videotape? Will it possible to tape there? Do you foresee any particular problems? Are there things that you can do now to solve them? Are there people you should talking to in preparation for your taping?
We will be discussing this in class as the class will divide in half for the video instruction
Discussion of Informed Consent and Situated Activity systems

Week 3

M April 14 Transcription
Reading: Ochs: "Transcription as Theory
Assignment #2 DUE: Transcription Assignment due.


W April 16 Hands on session in Media Lab on editing
2nd floor Powell, room 270
Reading: Berger: "Ways of Seeing"
Research Practices
Discussion of taping in a variety of natural settings: Issues of camera and microphone placement, (while half of the class is learning to edit)

Week 4

M April 21 Processes of Interaction Within the Utterance
Reading Goodwin & Goodwin: "Assessments and the Construction of Context"
Data Seminar Assessments in Stories
Assignment #3 handed out: Audio Transcription Due April 30)
Make an audio transcript of a section (or sections if you are already building a collection) at least 2 minutes long from the tape that you recorded.
People who have collaborated on doing a tape should transcribe different sections. Everyone should make a one page excerpt from their transcript as an overhead transparency. Make the type BIG - if you are using a computer make it at least 18 point (that way it can easily be read when projected as an overhead). Bring a copy of your tape to class and advance it so that it is ready to play at the place that matches the excerpt on your overhead.
This assignment is due on Wed. April 30

W April 23 Sequential Organization and Camerawork as Theory
Reading: Schegloff and Sacks: "Opening Up Closings"

Week 5

M Apr 28 Replies and Responses

Reading: Goffman: Replies and Responses
Heritage: Conversation Analysis

W April 30 Bounding Units and working with your own tapes
Data Seminar Presentation of Transcripts by Groups
Assignment #3 (Transcription of Your own Tape) Due

Week 6

M May 5 Seeing as Practice

Reading: Goodwin: Professional Vision
Data Seminar: Archaeological Practice

W May 7 Storytelling in Conversation
Reading: Goffman: Footing
Data Seminar: Storytelling in Conversation

Week 7

M May 12 Talk at Work in Tool-Saturated Environments

Reading: Goodwin and Goodwin: Seeing as a Situated Activity: Formulating Planes"
Data Seminar: Talk in Work Settings,

W May 14 Formulaic Speech & Talk in Institutional Settings:
Reading: Goodwin: Informing and Announcements in their Environment"
Data Seminar: Talk at Work

Week 8 - Week 10

M May 19 on Data Seminar & Ethnographic Space
From this point forward much of our class discussion will focus around the development of your final papers.
Everyone should bring to this and future classes (we can schedule presentations)
1) A section of videotape that they find particularly relevant to the analysis they are developing
2) Transcription of that section on overheads and/or handouts
3) A short, clear statement of the phenomenon they are working on in the data.
· This can be expanded to a longer analysis but you should feel free to bring in even very preliminary analysis.
· Look at these sessions as a chance to show everyone else what you are working on and get their help in shaping it up into a final paper.
· Clearly not everyone will present every class. However everyone must present their work at least once.
· It's to your advantage to present your work as soon as possible and get feedback and help on it. You might then want to present a revised version at a subsequent seminar.

Your paper should include
· Audio Transcription
· Video Transcription
· Analysis of a phenomenon

Class Preparation

Students will be responsible for reading assignments each class period. Students will present their work in class.
If you are absent from class get the handouts from another student, as they will only be handed out one time; getting handouts is your responsibility.
Syllabus is subject to minor changes given developing interests of students; there will be some time for selected student presentations throughout the term.

Note: Video Editing is possible 8AM - 10 PM in Powell (We will schedule times for assistance with Jill Kushner, TA.) Viewing of VHS tape is possible on 2nd floor Powell

Project 1 15%
Project 2 10%
Project 3 15%
Class Participation 15%
Final Project 45%

Suggestions for Additional Reading

Atkinson, J. Maxwell and John Heritage (Eds.)
1984   Structures of Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Drew, Paul and John Heritage (Eds.)
1992    Talk at Work Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Duranti, Alessandro
1994    From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village . Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Garfinkel, Harold
1967    Studies in Ethnomethodology . Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Goodwin, Charles
1981   Conversational Organization: Interaction Between Speakers and Hearers . New York: Academic Press.

Goodwin, Marjorie Harness
1990   He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hanks, William F.
1990   Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space Among the Maya . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heritage, John
1984   Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology . Cambridge: Polity Press.

Levinson, Stephen C.
1983   Pragmatics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Moerman, Michael
1988   Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Ochs, Elinor
1988   Culture and Language Development: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization in a Samoan Village . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sacks, Harvey
1992   Lectures on Conversation . Edited by Gail Jefferson, with an Introduction by Emanuel A. Schegloff. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Schieffelin, Bambi B
1990   The Give and Take of Everyday Life: Language Socialization of Kaluli Children . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.