Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2008
Over the past ten years, conversational analysis “CA” has come to wield a significant influence on second language “L2” acquisition and teaching. It originally developed out of a school of sociology called ethnomethodology, develped by Garginkel (1967). Following the work of Garfinkel, Sacks and his colleagues, Schegloff and Jefferson, establised CA, the study of the structural organization of ordinary conversation,. Sack' lecture notes (1964–1972), which comprise appeoximately 2,000 pages, continue to provide a foundation for contemporary CA. In explaining why he developed a framework for CA, Sacks states: