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Laughter in Contexts of Interactional Troublesin Writing Tutoring Sessions

KIM SEUNG EUN 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In Conversation Analysis (CA), laughter, which is treated as a systematically produced activity, has been investigated in connection with troubles. This paper examines initiating laughter in three writing tutoring sessions at a university writing center in Korea, deploying the method of CA. Laughter can be used in two ways in the dataset. Firstly, tutors can use laughter to mitigate their negative assessment about the student's essay. Along with delays and mitigating expressions, laughter infiltrated in the assessment can mitigate the dispreferred nature of the negative assessment. Secondly, both tutors and students can display their talk or action as inappropriate through laughter. The tutor uses laughter when producing talk that can be treated problematic or accountable. The students join in the tutor's laughter, and this shared laughter mitigates the problematic nature of the tutor's talk. Students may similarly use laughter to display their awareness of the inappropriate nature of their talk or conduct, when responding to the tutor's questions. The analysis suggests that laughter can be associated with interactional troubles. The conclusion will include comparisons with other institutional contexts.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.