Jeffrey S. Good, Wayne A. Beach
Opening up gift-openings: Birthday parties as situated activity systems
We analyze the interactional organization and embodied
actions of children and adults involved in gift-opening activities. Attention is
drawn to gift-opening as a situated activity system, comprised of
gift-opening activities occurring within shifting participation
frameworks and intense focus clusters. Talk and embodied actions (the use of
objects, body orientations, and the structure of the environment) are revealed
as seamlessly conjoined in the midst of a routine birthday party. Attention is
further drawn to an extended summons–answer sequence involving initiation of a
gift-opening, enthusiastic response cries, positive assessments of the gifts,
the offering and prompting of thanks, and related actions. It is revealed that
children at the party are not just playing games and opening gifts, but involved
in a complex social system where adults model and facilitate the construction
and integration of past, present, and future relationships. Implications are
raised for understanding how gift-opening activities provide opportunities for
examining how language development and childhood socialization are enacted as
interactional achievements.
Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0165-4888
Volume: 25, 09/2005
Pages: 565 - 593
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