This article explores how members of small work
groups use audible and visible actions to coordinate conversational
interaction. The analysis of this activity context includes
some methods for re-engaging turn-by-turn talk after it
has lapsed, as well as some methods for making relevant
a lapse in talk, and dis-engaging it, once it has been
engaged. In addition, the actions positioned at conversational
boundaries, both pre-re-engaging and post-dis-engaging,
show the members' orientation to phases of lapse and
phases of turn-by-turn talk.
This study is part of a larger
dissertation project (Szymanski 1996). I thank Rebecca
Simon and her third-graders for welcoming me into their
classroom. I also gratefully acknowledge Gene Lerner, John
Gumperz, Leslie Jarmon, and Jürgen Streeck for their
valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.