Part 3 Understanding Theory and Issues in the Field

3.1 Reflection on a substantive research paper: An analysis of repairs in family conversations

(AL 6140 Discourse Analysis for Language Teacher)
I had never heard of such a discourse analysis course before I entered the MA TESOL
program even though I studied English education. Moreover, I had never done research using
authentic resources. So when I read the syllabus for the first time, I was surprised as well as
nervous, because I did not know how to collect conversation data such as recordings and videos
of actual conversations. In addition, there were many other requirements and expectations for
this research paper. However, as the course progressed we learned from our professor, and I
realized that conversation analysis was really enjoyable and includes interesting topics and ideas.
Since conversation analysis is about analyzing the data that naturally occurred, I collected
data from an unusual living situation with people who live together in the same house but come
from different backgrounds. In particular, my subjects came from The Philippines, Germany,
U.S.A. and Japan. This type of arrangement is similar to that in an ESL language classroom in a
place like Hawaii because students in the classroom meet and study with others who come from
different countries and cultures. I put a camera at the back of the dinner table and recorded
conversation during the dinner or some other situations. Each conversation was about 20 minutes
and I collected about two hours of data overall. For my research, I especially searched and
analyzed how and why people repair their conversations. Repair means the various ways to
correct and re-organize the conversation using point out and repeat the trouble-source (word or
phrase) or give a pause to let a speaker figure out the problems with the conversation. After I
collected the data, I listened to and transcribed all the video conversations. As a result, people
tend to use self-initiated self-repair in their general conversation, so people realize their trouble

source on their own and tend to repeat or use the different word right after the trouble source in
the conversation. People also do other-initiated self-repair sequences in their conversations, so to
let a speaker notice the trouble-source, and their relationships to each other vary.
There are two main strengths in my paper. One of the strength in this research paper is the
evidence that I can collect and analyze the data by myself. It was really hard to find the situation
which I wanted to research; negotiate with people to allow me to take video of their
conversation; which was about two hours overall; listen to the conversation, and spend over four
hours transcribing it. At first, I was really anxious about the research but I was filled with a sense
of accomplishment after I finished everything.
Another strength of the paper is be able to prove that I was able to conduct a modest
linguistic research project as I mentioned above. Moreover, I learned so much from this research.
One discovery was that people repair their conversation not only when they misunderstand the
conversation and clarify the meaning of it, but also to correct and to teach. Working on this paper
has given me some suggestions for how teachers could repair and give feedback to their students
in their classroom conversations. The results I obtained from the research I will be able to use for
my future instruction.
However, there are some weak points of this paper, too. One of the weaknesses is the lack
of a literature review. I took too much time transcribing and analyzing the data so I did not have
time to find and write literature sources. Without better resources, this paper does not have
enough evidence to support my ideas or be considered a strong academic paper.
The lack of suggestions for classroom application in the future is also a weakness of this
paper. I should have written more detailed suggestions for how a teacher should teach repair
conversation to help students understand the methods and help address their conversation

problems in the class. For example, when your pair or group members are quiet and do not speak
during the conversation or discussion tasks, you should not assume that they do not understand
the topics of the conversation. It might be possible that they are just trying to summarize their
ideas to explain. If students know more options for repair conversation methods, they can guess
their partner or group members situation and support each other.
When I revised this paper, I realized how unfamiliar I was with writing academic papers
in English, although I wrote this paper for my third semester. Additionally, I had to listen and
write down what people said in their conversations. I had to listen to their conversations for long
periods of hours, which somehow affected my concentration. If I had more time to listen
carefully to the conversations, I could have written a more detailed analysis.
Through writing this paper, I learned that people use repair to figure out the troublesources and to ensure their conversations work smoothly. People also use repair not only to
confirm the trouble-source, but also to teach the right words and forms. Moreover, the children in
my study often used the repair patterns to assert their opinion, disagree with their mothers
idea, or have her pay more attention to them. Even though there are still areas of the paper that
need revision, I learned how I should write an academic research paper as a graduate student.