Understanding Institutional Talk: Role of Communication in Task-Oriented Settings

1. Applying CA: Institutional talk

2. Institutional talk • Institutional talk relates to talk that constitutes particular work- or task-oriented settings. • The setting itself does not characterise talk as institutional: it is the identities that people adopt in settings. • The setting imposes constraints on what can be done and how. • In institutional settings institutional identities are created and carried out through talk.

3. Institutional talk • Institutional talk is characterised in a number of ways. • In institutional talk there is an orientation to some core task, goal or identity which is associated with the institutional setting in question. • Institutional talk involves special and particular constraints on what participants consider to be allowable contributions to the interaction. • Institutional talk may be associated with inferential procedures particular to the institution.

4. Turn-taking in institutional settings • In institutional contexts, differences can be observed in the way in which the turn-taking systems operate. • These differences are consequential for the functioning of the institution as an institution. • The main differences in turn-taking are: • Turn-type pre-allocation • Turn allocation mechanisms

5. Turn-type pre-allocation • Turn-type pre-allocation: what participants are able to say is determined by the institutional setting rather than being locally managed by participants. • in courtrooms, witnesses and suspects are restricted to answering questions; • in interviews, interviewees are restricted to answering questions; • in school classrooms, at least at some points in a lesson, students are restricted to answering teachers’ questions.

6. Turn-type pre-allocation

7. Turn-type pre-allocation • The pre-allocation of turn types restricts who can speak and what can be said. • The restrictions of participation found in such settings: • give institutional members control over the ways in which the interaction can proceed; • allow institutional members to determine the ways in which non-members can participate; • allow institutional members to determine how non-members contributions are to be understood.

8. Turn-type pre-allocation and control • Determining how a non-members contribution will be understood.

9. Turn-type pre-allocation • Determining what non-members can say

10. Turn-type pre-allocation • The restriction of the turn-types used by institutional members can be seen as a consequence of their institutional roles and identities: • E.g. • News interviewers do not produce certain actions: making statements, producing evaluations or making routine acknowledgements. • The removal of such turns positions the interviewer as an institutional elicitor of information not an individual engaged in interaction with another.

11. Turn allocation mechanisms • Turn-talking may be mediated: one participant determines the operation of speaker change. • Such turn-taking systems are found in • Meetings: the chair controls who speaks and when • Classrooms: the teacher determines who speaks and when. • The control of the interaction • allows the interaction to be a jointly attended production of a single sequence of talk; • allows for orderly speaker change.

12. Turn allocation mechanisms: meetings • In large, formal meetings a designated chair may control the turn-taking structure. • The ordering of speakers may be done by: • having possible next speakers bid for a next turn during the current turn. • having the chair declare the order of speakers.

13. Turn allocation mechanisms: classrooms • In large group work in classrooms, teachers control the turn-taking structure. • By allocating turns • By selecting bidders for the floor

14. Turn allocation mechanisms: classrooms • In large group work in classrooms, teachers control the turn-taking structure. • If the teacher does not select a next speaker, then the teacher normally continues to be the current speaker. • Students who wish to become the next speaker must bid for a turn.

15. Structure of institutional interactions • Structure is a feature of all interactions, but in institutional talk particular formats are found which relate to the institutional nature of the talk. • E.g., in police interviews: • There are three main sections: • opening, • information gathering • and closing • Each of these parts of the interview orients to particular institutional needs.

16. Structure of institutional interactions • Opening police interviews: • Openings begin by collecting information about the suspect/witness

17. Structure of institutional interactions • Opening police interviews: • Openings move to the purpose of the interview. • This is followed by a statement of rights and confirmation of these.

18. Structure of institutional interactions • Opening police interviews: • The opening then moves to information gathering by detailing events of a crime.