Learning to Talk the Talk: Conversation Analysis as a Tool for Induction of Trainee Teachers

Abstract

Trainee and newly qualified professionals often experience difficulty in becoming proficient in the professional discourse required in both interaction with clients and interaction in meetings with fellow professionals. Some professions have begun to address the need to induct new professionals into professional discourse, often by offering observation or by showing videos of typical interaction. This chapter argues that many of the complexities and subtleties of professional discourse may not always be evident during observation or videos and that it is often precisely these complexities and subtleties which cause the problems for the newcomer. However, these may sometimes be revealed by fine-grained conversation analysis (CA) of transcripts which may then be combined with video to create a powerful induction tool.