Sp410/510:  Conversation:  Structure and Process

Winter Quarter, 2008 (hybrid:  half on-line.  Meets Wednesday 10-12:00)

David Ritchie, Communication Department http://web.pdx.edu/~cgrd/

cgrd@pdx.edu.  please use this for all communication with me – not WebCT Mail.

Readings:

            Clark, H. H. (1996).  Using Language.  Cambridge.

Objectives and Format

            This class is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students with an interest in how meaning is constructed in conversation.  The class will be 50% on WebCT, with one two hour face-to-face meeting per week.   It is expected that on-line discussions and exercises will also require approximately two hours per week. 

Attendance.

            Regular attendance (on-time) is expected of all students.  If you are unable to attend for reasons beyond your control please notify me in advance or, in the event of an emergency, as soon as you can.  Unexcused absences or late arrival will ordinarily result in a deduction from your grade. While in class, please do not use cell-phones or other external communication devices.  Laptops may be used only for purposes directly related to the class, such as taking notes or locating outside information relevant to the class discussion.  Laptops may not be used for e-mail or any other purposes not directly related to the class.  Since class meetings will be primarily discussion-oriented, with some short lectures to clear up difficult concepts, I prefer that students not eat or chew gum in class. 

Weekly on-line assignments. 

            Students will be assigned to small work groups for weekly on-line discussion.  Each week, each student will prepare an abstract of the assigned readings for that week, length 15-30 lines, and post it in their work-group thread by Sunday 8:00 a.m.  The abstract should summarize the key points from the reading, with examples drawn from real life, and identify any unanswered questions in the student’s mind.  

            Each week the students in each work group will discuss the week’s reading assignment.  In addition to the abstract, each student will be expected to post at least twice each week.  The initial posting may address how the ideas presented in the current week’s reading assignment applies to everyday conversation, or how the material relates to concepts and theories learned in other classes.  The initial posting may also respond to a question from me or a question raised by another student.  The second posting each week will respond to one or more other students’ postings. The initial posting should be no later than 8:00 a.m. Monday, and all three postings (abstract, initial discussion posting, and response to another student’s posting) must be posted no later than 8:00 a.m. Wednesday.  Each of the required discussion postings should ordinarily be at least 12 lines long; all postings should be in grammatical English (complete sentences etc.).  I will assign provisional grades to each student for each week, based on the abstract and the participation in the group’s on-line discussion, but these are subject to revision when I assess the student’s overall participation at the end of the quarter. 

Term Paper – all students

            Every student will write a research paper.  Students will obtain and analyze transcripts of a conversation that lasts at least thirty minutes, or a thirty minute segment of a longer conversation.  The conversation may be a “peer group conversation” facilitated by a team of 2-4 students working together, within the instructor’s current research program (for which HSRRC permission has already been obtained).  Students may also use a conversation they have previously recorded and transcribed for a different class.  The analysis should show how theories and concepts discussed in class apply to the conversation, and discuss issues of generalizability (for example, how typical is this conversation?)  Where relevant, theories and concepts encountered in prior course work should be referenced.   Recommended length is 15-25 pages.  Grad students are expected to cite at least 6-10 references in addition to the assigned readings.  Students may work on this project in teams of 2-4 students.  (Group papers are expected to be longer and more detailed than individual papers.) 

Theory Critique and analysis – graduate students only

            In addition to the term paper, each graduate student will select a theory that is relevant to a topic covered in the course, such as Relevance Theory (Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. (1986/1995). Relevance:  Communication and Cognition.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard U. Press. – or see the shorter precis in Brain & Brain Science) or Intentionality (e.g.,             Gibbs, R. W. Jr. (1999).  Intentions in the Experience of Meaning.  Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press.), whether or not the theory has received extensive attention from Clark.  The student will review the chosen theory or concept and pertinent criticisms and discuss how it can be related to Clark’s ideas.  The result will be a concept-explication and critique paper of 7-10 pages and a 30-minute presentation to the class.  (Note the importance of preparing the presentation in such a way that undergraduate members of the class can comprehend and benefit from it.)  The paper is due no later than one week following the in-class presentation. 

Exams

There will also be an mid-term and final exam, both on-line.  

Topics:  (note:  All reading assignments must be completed before the date for which they are assigned.) 

1.  Jan. 9.  Organizing; introduction to class.

2.  Jan. 16.  The conversation model.  

            Read by Jan. 12:  Clark, Ch. 1

            Focus on:  “Doing things with language”; settings; elements of face-to-face communication; “common ground”; definition of “signal”; participants and roles; layering; joint actions and participatory actions; Clark’s working assumptions. 

3.  Jan. 23.  The problem of coordination.   (4 hours)

            Read by Jan. 19:  Clark, Ch. 2, pp. 29-58; Ch. 3, pp. 59-62 & 70-91 (Grad students – entire chapter)

            Focus on:  Chapter 2:  dimensions of activity types; public vs. private goals; How people coordinate; simultaneous joint activities; composition of common ground; process of maintaining common ground; discrepancies in common ground; external & internal representations; dimensions of joint activities.   Chapter 3:  Joint actions vs. individual (adaptive & deceptive) actions; coordination and conditions of successful coordination; conventions; principles of salience, solvability, and sufficiency; language problems that require non-conventional solutions; asynchronous joint actions.  Note:  The key of these two chapters is to understand the problems involved in coordinating talk, and the cognitive processes and cultural conventions through which these problems are solved.

4.  Jan. 30  Common Ground  

            Read by Jan. 26:  Clark, Ch. 4

5.  Feb. 6  Theories of meaning 

            Read by Feb. 2:  Clark, Ch. 5

6.  Feb. 13  Signaling:  Language & gesture 

            Read by Feb. 9:  Clark, Ch. 6

7.  Feb. 20:  Structure of conversational interactions  

            Read by Feb. 16:  Clark, Ch. 7-8

8.  Feb. 27:  Utterances

            Read by Feb. 23:  Clark, Ch. 9

9.  March 5:  Commitment and politeness.  

            Read by March 1:  Clark, Ch. 10

10.  March 12:  Layers and levels 

            Read by March 8:  Clark, Ch. 11 & 12

Final Exam:  March 19.