女児仲間集団の会話構造に関する臨床的研究

応答の不在に着目して

抄録

This article describes some practical strategies in interactions to cope with problems arising in schoolgirl friendships, from the perspective of conversation analysis. When a problem occurs in interactions among friends, how do school children tackle the problem by themselves? The purpose of this study is, by showing concrete and detailed ways of dealing with problems in interactions, to point to the possibilities for clinical studies on education.
The specific problem in friendships is that the members of the schoolgirl's group leave a member out of the group in conversation. From the perspective of conversation analysis, this problem in interactions can be regarded as “absence of an answer”. This is a definite phenomenon. And the way to solve this problem is simple and clear. In short, unless the speaker requests an answer, the absence of an answer cannot be generated in conversations. Based on this fact, the schoolgirl can talk in cooperation with the other members of the group, using other utterances that do not request an answer. As an example, one can use the utterance device of “collaboration of a single sentence”. With this device, the schoolgirl opens a space in hers own utterance in the way so that the other members may enter into the space voluntarily to continue the rest of that single sentence.
Of course, practical strategies to cope with various problems in friendships are actually observed in fieldwork. When children are confronted with a problem, they manage to deal with it. The fact that practical ways that are not entirely explored are realized through objective descriptions is a significance of clinical study.