Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in Conversation Analysis: Methodological Reflections on a Study of Argumentative Group Discussions

This paper discusses fundamental and applied aspects of the relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches in conversation analysis (CA). Starting from the observation that informal coding and informal quantification can be found in numerous works of classical CA, the paper discusses features of formal quantification. In the main section of the paper, such formal quantifications (based on conversation-analytic categories) are carried out on a corpus of 180 conversations of Swiss German schoolchildren, and the preceding elaboration of a coding scheme is discussed in detail. The data consist of discussions between elementary schoolchildren. The aim of the quantifications is to develop reliable statements about the relationship between interactive argumentative practices (modalization, perspectivation, argumentative complexity, interactivity) and other variables (age, setting, gender) and thus about crucial aspects of oral argumentation competence. In addition, we discuss various visualizations based on quantified data, which make individual differences between interactants particularly visible.