Utrecht Studies in Language and Communication36 Multimodal Interaction on the Move

This book is a study of instructional interaction in driving lessons. Drawing on the methodology of Conversation Analysis, Gazin describes how the participants build specific types of sequences with the constraints of mobility and of the continuously ongoing driving activity. This book is a study of around seven hours of naturally occurring video data, recorded by the author in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Drawing on the methodology of Conversation Analysis, Gazin analyses instructional sequences of interaction during driving lessons. The temporal constraints of mobility make the driving lessons a rich setting for the investigation of sequence organisation and action constitution. The author identifies different types of actions that compose the unfolding driving and instructing activity, and their turn-constructional features (e.g. different verb forms for specific instructions). The analyses thereby offer insights that inform fundamental concepts like multiactivity and multimodality. The investigations in this book contribute to an increased understanding of the mechanisms of human interaction in general and in mobile settings more specifically.