Communicating reasoning in Q&A sessions of academic presentations: experts and novices in action

Abstract

Communicating reasoning is an essential part of academic interaction. Yet it is not a commonly addressed aspect of students’ competence development for Q&A sessions, where the attention often focuses on more global skills. There is also a tendency to draw on stocks of interactional wisdom imparted through print and online resources. Despite growing interests in analysing actual speech events such as graduate seminars and press conferences, there is little reported research on academic Q&A sessions. This paper reports on part of a larger study that aims to contribute to meeting the need for the teaching of Q&A skills to be research-informed. The larger study examines the communication behaviours of professors/researchers and university students in videoed Q&A sessions which make up the data. This paper looks specifically into how the two groups of speakers communicate their reasoning in responding to questions. The action of reasoning is analysed adopting mainly conversation analysis methodology, with emphasis placed on identifying interactional patterns rather than analysing the content of the responses. The patterns found in the two groups are compared and pedagogical implications of the findings are explored. The paper also discusses the potential contribution of the findings towards verifying the received wisdoms as well as adding new dimensions to the current understanding of Q&A skills.