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USING THE MICRO-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE OF CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION IN SUPERVISION
Her hesitation in lines 1-2 could be a structural marker with the purpose of
highlighting the topics up to now as rather irrelevant and the now impending
problem description as the truly vital part; as a whole it could be a kind of
filling activity that gives her more time to choose formulations she finds
appropriate. In that sense, SE’s hesitation seems to be rooted in cautiousness
with the attributions and ascriptions she is going to make. More precisely, SE is
hesitant to state that she views certain members of her staff as hypocritical and
unmotivated to the point of laziness (a view which she implies more obviously
later on).
The entire time SR is merely listening, not providing any audible
backchanneling. (She is probably showing her attention non-verbally.) Also,
during the 1.4 sec pause (line #2) and the remarkably long 5 sec pause (line #3),
SR does not claim the turn. But apparently she notices SE’s difficulties, because
after SE has finally hinted at the problem and then broken off her utterance
yet again, SR makes use of SE’s fading utterance by offering a metaphorical
German proverb which is colloquial and widely used, providing easy cognitive
access. Thus, she paraphrases SE’s description, which SE in turn ratifies. When
SE strongly agrees (line #6), SR offers another one which is also confirmed
by SE. At this point, SR seems to adopt SE’s point of view and explore it in
a supportive manner instead of asking ancillary questions (cf. Heritage on
ancillary questions as a “resource for declining empathic affiliation with the
position taken by the teller”, 2011: 168).
SE escalates her agreement from “yeah, yeah” (line #6) to “exactly” (line #7)
which is a strong indicator of how successfully SR has shown understanding
of the content of SE’s message as well as loyalty to SE’s point of view while not
intruding into SE’s turn, i. e. her right to presenting whatever is weighing on
her mind in her own words.
In lines #6 (“They want” / “Like that”) and line #7 (“Hm” / “Exactly”) there
are two good examples of how particularly short and affirmative simultaneous
speaking can be a sign of cooperation and consent, i. e. of rapport.
TRANSCRIPT # 2: WORDING SE’s CONCERN
In a second step, the participants have to agree on a shared view of what exactly
is to be the topic of the supervision session / process, that is, which problem
and which concern is to be discussed. In the following excerpt, SE has been
describing her workplace situation, conflicts with colleagues, her decreasing
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