Practices of Turn Construction in Conversation

This special issue of "Research on Language and Social Interaction" spotlights the sequential organization of word use by bringing together a collection of reports that examine "Practices of Turn Construction in Conversation." Each of the papers investigates how words are used by examining many field recordings of talk-in-interaction in order to locate and study instances of word-use practice situated in their original sequential environments. The turn-constructional practices reported in this special issue add to the understanding and appreciation of the orderliness of action at the level of word use. These investigations demonstrate the importance of examining language use in terms of its place in human conduct--most proximately within the turns at talk and sequences of action that stand together as the natural home of spoken language.