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Researching Body Movements and Interaction in Education

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Research Methods in Language and Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

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Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that talk is inextricably interwoven with body movements in everyday social interaction. Thus, it is important to take into account both talk and body movements deployed by participants when researching face-to-face interaction. Recent years have seen a growing interest in the study of body movements and interaction in educational settings. This chapter provides an overview of the early developments, major contributions, recent work in progress, and future research directions in the area of body movements in educational interaction. One commonality across these studies is that they provide detailed accounts of how body movements are consequential to the organization of actions in human interaction. Three theoretical approaches provide the foundation for the current research on body movements in educational interaction: the structural approach, conversation analysis, and microethnography. Utilizing these three approaches, recent research has explored the interactional function of body movements in education. Specifically, recent studies have examined the role of body movements in the display of emotions in educational interaction and multiactivity in education. Finally, some possible future research directions are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East Asian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Xiaoting Li

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  1. Xiaoting Li
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Correspondence to Xiaoting Li .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Kendall A. King

  2. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Yi-Ju Lai

  3. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Li, X. (2017). Researching Body Movements and Interaction in Education. In: King, K., Lai, YJ., May, S. (eds) Research Methods in Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02249-9_33

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