Conversation analysis

This chapter principally focuses on conversation analysis (CA) as a methodological approach to better understand the nuanced, temporal, initiation, reaction, and exchange processes that occur within coaching contexts. Informed by a social research approach, the aim of such investigation is to produce knowledge through the inspection of empirical evidence to understand the structures and processes evident in the social world. Ethnomethodology's ontological position is rooted within social constructionism, where social phenomena and their meanings are constantly being accomplished by social actors. Therefore, CA aims to reveal the organization and construction of social reality by participants within interactions. From an epistemological perspective, CA is located within a phenomenological paradigm with the aim of examining common-sense thinking through the analysis of the procedural infrastructure of situated action. The analysis process involves a detailed understanding of both the symbols and procedures of CA and the development of the skills to listen and analyze in detail the subtleties of interactions.