The Actions and sequences of action team investigates the ways in which participants in interaction in concert come to an intersubjective understanding of what kind of sequence of action they are engaged in and what kind of action some piece of behavior is implementing. We also study practices of dealing with possible breakdowns in intersubjectivity. The team works in the following main areas of research.

We study, in collaboration with the FiDiPro project, the multimodal practices that participants use to organize the orderliness of their interaction and to manage their tasks in routine service encounters. The focus here is on convenience stores and other shop encounters which are studied in a number of languages from the point of view of the multimodality of actions and activities, their commercial character and the manipulation of physical objects. Another type of institutional interactions studied are the Finnish parliamentary plenary sessions in which we analyze the practices of initiating, constructing and interpreting actions by the members of the parliament.
A study on directives with which the speaker tells the other one to do something (imperatively formatted turns) in different activity contexts, mundane and institutional, in ten European languages is being published.

Researchers: Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, Marja Etelämäki, Trine Heinemann, Aino Koivisto, Camilla Lindholm, Jan Lindström, Lorenza Mondada, Liisa Raevaara, Mirka Rauniomaa, Giovanni Rossi, Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Melisa Stevanovic, Eero Voutilainen.
Collaborators: FiDiPro project; Barbara Fox (University of Boulder), researchers from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and USA.

We investigate the ways in which a stretch of talk is constructed as a responsive action, and the kinds of epistemic and affective stances that different languages and cultures have conventionalized, aiming at a better understanding of systems of responsive actions and their generic as well as socio-cultural specificities. We study responses as part of a comparative study of a response particle that has been borrowed and spread across languages (‘okay’). In the area of expressions of change of state, such as realization or remembering something, a special issue on these expressions in a number of languages has come out (2016), and research on the practices in Finnish continues. In the area of generic responsive elements, research on the particle no in Finnish continues; research on responses to questions in Finnish continues as well. Research on commonalities and differences in modifying actions with turn-initial particles in 15 languages (European, Asian and Australian aboriginal languages) is reaching its completion.

Researchers: Auli Hakulinen, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, Trine Heinemann, Aino Koivisto, Camilla Lindholm, Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Heidi Vepsäläinen.
Collaborators: Researchers from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, USA.

We investigate repair practices both in symmetric and asymmetric interactions.
We study the system of other-initiation of repair in Finnish, and explore the relationship between particular problem types and repair practices. We are interested especially in the permeability of the boundary between initiating repair and initiating other actions. We have focused already for some time on repetition and the intersection of actions aiming to remedy problems in mutual intelligibility with questioning or challenging what the previous speaker has said. The other central area of research focuses on repair practices in asymmetric conversational data including participants with limited communicative resources, such as people with aphasia, dementia or hearing impairment.

Researchers: Markku Haakana, Salla Kurhila, Minna Laakso, Niina Lilja, Marjo Savijärvi, Inkeri Salmenlinna, Marja-Leena Sorjonen.
Collaborators: Jan Svennevig (University of Oslo), Jeffrey Robinson (Portland State University)

By using data from different types of situations, we investigate interactional practices for learning in interaction and resources that enhance learning. In a joint project with artists we investigate resources that a summer job of making-theatre for youngsters offers for learning language and interactional skills. In school context, we study the co-construction of linguistic normativity in classroom interaction in Arabic. In the area of second language learning, we have started a project, which seeks to find ways to support language learning and language use at multi-ethnic workplaces. Data are being collected at a hospital ward in Helsinki, and for example nurses’ means to display their professional identity linguistically are being studied.

Researchers: Laura Ihalainen, Salla Kurhila, Inkeri Lehtimaja, Irina Piippo, Liisa Raevaara, Marjo Savijärvi, Tomi Visakko.
Collaborators: Charles Antaki (Loughborough University), Paul Drew (Loughborough University), Johanna Komppa (University of Helsinki), Jan Svennevig (University of Oslo), Srikant Sarangi (Aalborg University)

We investigate the consequentiality of digital artefacts and the material environment for different types of interactions. In family interactions, we explore the ways in which family members solve tensions having to do how to spend family time when there is an increased number of co-occurring activities. In learning second language, we study the use of both technological and human resources for creating a language-learning environment.

Researchers: Ilkka Arminen, Lari Kotilainen, Salla Kurhila, Mika Simonen
Collaborators: Niina Lilja (University of Tampere), Paul Seedhouse (Newcastle University), the researchers in the LanCook-project

We study interactional practices and achievement of intersubjectivity in interactions, where the participants have asymmetric resources of communication, both in different kinds of care situations and everyday interactions for example in family. In the study of interactions with aphasic speakers, practices used in speech therapy and family interactions are compared. In an ongoing project on dementia, extensive data collection has been carried out at a Swedish-language dementia care facility. The results reported deal with responsive actions, participation in care home settings, and the interplay between Finnish and Swedish in the everyday life at the care facility.

Researchers: Salla Kurhila, Minna Laakso, Camilla Lindholm, Inkeri Salmenlinna.