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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 * 217
