The conversation analysis approach of using audio and video recordings of naturally occurring conversation contrasts with other methods of collecting data in the social and cognitive sciences. This paper intends to describe the ways in which conversation analysts collect their data suitable for analysis, including the steps involved in preparing to record, the recording of naturally occurring social interaction, and also the processing of recordings after they have been made. Before actually making the recordings, researchers must first choose what type of conversation they will collect and what device to use. Researchers also need to obtain consent for recording from the participants in a conversation analytic study. While making the recordings, researchers must figure out many practical issues such as who, when, how, what, how much, and where to record. After recording, researchers need to store data in audio or video formats. Researchers also archive it, using codes for identification that facilitate later finding, quoting and retrieving of any file. This paper focuses on these choices as they are made before, during, and after recordings and places specific emphasis on the effects these choices have on the recordings. It also illuminates how these techniques are closely related to the methodological and theoretical assumptions of the conversation analysis approach.

Lee, Jee Won. 2017. “The Use and Discourse-Pragmatic Function of wo buzhidao in Naturally Occurring Mandarin Chinese Conversation”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(1). 167~192. This study investigates several aspects of Chinese (wo) buzhidao using both qualitative and quantitative methods, including its distributional properties and discourse-pragmatic functions in conversational contexts. This study has found that (wo) buzhidao occurs in conversational environments other than in reply to information questions and carries more interactive and social implications than had been previously proposed by previous studies. First, (wo) buzhidao marks the speaker’s uncertainty and concerns about the truth of the proposition expressed. Second, (wo) buzhidao constructs the speaker’s neutral position by disattending opinions, assessments, or troubles. Third, (wo) buzhidao avoids an explicit disagreement. The use of (wo) buzhidao as a stance marker allows the speaker to convey his/her consideration for the hearer’s face, and it can help to achieve a range of interactional goals. Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese employ (wo) buzhidao in conjunction with other interactive strategies to organize their speech via their recipient enabling mutual intersubjectivity.

This study will analyze the problems of the backward (obsolete) textbook contents and the stereotyped (imprisoned) teaching methods in classroom implemented by the Korean universities who teach advanced Mandarin conversation lesson in this digital era, and then put forward one possible solution called the model of “Flipped Learning”(“Flipped Classroom” is also included), which could teach advanced Mandarin conversation lesson by flexibly using Internet E-books. The existing education’s paradigm is discarded by teachers and students, and the textbooks’ role is changing rapidly and dramatically along with the education spread and knowledge diffusion via Internet. Through the flexible usage of the latest Internet E-books, not only the politics, economics, cultures, media and press of Chinese modern society could be known, but also our young generation (post 90s, post 00s)’s thought and vision. In a “Flipped Classroom” which gives conversation lesson, it could be expected that weak study will and motivation could be stimulated; uninterested and dull lessons could be inverted into spirit-lifting ones which contain endless lively activities; and those students who used to learn passively could maximize their ability to solve problems all by themselves in their learning process.

Lee, Jee-won. 2012. Gesture, Gaze, and Bodily Cues in Mandarin Conversation: Two Case Studies. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 20(1). pp. 213-234. This study uses discourse analysis to illustrate some ways that non-verbal actions such as gaze, facial expression, and gesture work to contextualize the speech delivered in conversation. These bodily cues also enable participants to organize interactions as collaborative creations of meaning rather than simply a turn-by-turn exchange of speech. This study uses two excerpts from Mandarin Chinese conversations to illustrate how non-verbal cues help speakers and recipients to engage in collaborative action with one another. Speakers give recipients information about their stances vis-à-vis the speech they produce, and recipients use this information to manage their reactions to the speech they hear. Non-verbal actions also allow both parties to mutually regulate the flow of conversation. In both examples, it becomes clear that gaze, facial expression, and gesture are important elements of spoken interaction and that conversation as a whole should be understood as a contextual web of meaning that includes speech, body language, and overall social interaction.