At this workshop we will start with a discussion on common issues with capturing multimodal detail in interaction, from recording angles and ethics to brief demonstrations of transcription tools. The participants will briefly practice transcribing in order to analyze specific multimodal detail in a series of exercises, and revisit various methodological choices, such as starting by unmotivated looking at a linguistic feature vs. at the interacting bodies. We will then move on to exploring sequentiality and simultaneity, detailing the theoretical consequences of the fact that people deploy embodied resources in parallel with each other, discovering multimodal turn-constructional units and other systematic “packages”. We will address the (dis)advantages of analysts’ being expert members of the studied community of practice and achieving an emic perspective in the analysis. The participants will discuss specific results reported in existing literature with a critical eye, aiming to progress our understanding of language and the interacting bodies in their natural habitats.

Facilitated by: Leelo Keevallik and Emily Hofstetter