Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground

Detailed observational studies of children's everyday play and social interactions are rare in the social scientific literature. Using an ethnomethodological approach, Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground offers a thorough and fine-grained analysis of the methods and practices used by a group of children to generate and organize a particular game.

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This book offers a rich and detailed empirical account of children's play and interaction in the school playground. Drawing on the approaches of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, 'Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground' examines the organisation of membership and social action in a game created by a group of children. It offers rich insights into the methods and practices used by children to produce play and social order, making a significant and substantial contribution to the study of talk-in-interaction, as well as to studies of children's play, competencies, and social interaction. The book demonstrates the importance of putting aside preconceived assumptions about how children talk and interact in order to reveal the situated methods and practices that children use - not because they are children, but because they are social beings. As well as appealing to scholars of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, ’Talk and Social Interaction in the Playground’ will be of interest to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, including child studies, developmental psychology, education, applied linguistics, and sociology.