Multiple choice questions
Question 1
Conversation Analysis (CA) and Discourse Analysis (DA) differ from other qualitative research methods in that they treat language as:
a) A method rather than a theory
b) A resource rather than a topic
c) A theory rather than a method
d) A topic rather than a resource
Question 2
In CA, the term "indexicality" means that:
a) The meaning of an utterance depends on the context in which it is used
b) Speech acts can be listed and indexed after transcription
c) Words are constitutive of the social world in which they are located
d) People tend to wave their index finger in the air while speaking
Question 3
Which of the following is not one of the basic assumptions of CA?
a) Talk is structured
b) Talk is forged contextually
c) Talk can be measured and predicted
d) Analysis is grounded in data
Question 4
In a CA transcript, what does the symbol "(.)" stand for?
a) Intake of breath
b) Prolonged sound
c) Emphasis on the next word
d) Slight pause
Question 5
What is meant by the term "adjacency pair" in CA?
a) An interviewer and interviewee sitting next to each other
b) Two linked phases of conversation
c) Two similar questions asked in rapid succession
d) A mechanism used to repair an embarrassing mistake
Question 6
What have conversation analysts found that people generally do to "repair" the damage caused by a "dispreferred response"?
a) Provide justifications for their action
b) Correct themselves and give the preferred response
c) Brazen it out and pretend they don't care
d) Run away in a panic
Question 7
What do discourse analysts study?
a) Forms of communication other than talk
b) The way discourses "frame" our understanding of the social world
c) The rhetorical styles used in written and oral communication
d) All of the above
Question 8
What is meant by the term "ethnographic particulars"?
a) Specific people who are involved as key informants in an ethnography
b) A participant observation schedule that is used in qualitative research
c) Factors outside the immediate context of an interaction
d) The "here-and-now" context of situated talk
Question 9
Potter & Wetherell use the term "interpretative repertoires" to refer to:
a) The process of making non-factual data appear to be factual
b) The general resources people use to perform discursive acts
c) The frames of reference audiences use to hear messages
d) The stock of academic knowledge people draw upon in sociology
Question 10
The anti-realist inclination of many DA researchers is controversial because it leads them to assert that:
a) There is no pre-existing material reality that constrains individual action
b) Social structures determine the way individuals use language
c) The technique is incompatible with feminist principles
d) Quantitative research is inherently superior to qualitative research