When people interact face to face, they do not use merely verbal cues. Researchers who work with visual data have access to many of these cues. Think of the potential of studying how surgical teams coordinate their actions during an operation or the exchange of looks between patients and doctors in general practice. However, as we shall see, complicated data can often mean complicated problems!
It is not easy to organize the technical aspects of recording human interaction, nor are such data easy to transcribe and rigorously analyze.
The illustration below gives one relevant example.
Extract 3 shows how she tells her story. Her words are transcribed using the conventions explained in the Transcription Symbols section.In addition, however, Extract 3 shows both body movements and the direction of the participant’s gaze (marked as 'up' or 'down' below).
Extract 3 [Heath (2004:274): Fragment 1, (adapted)] walks up down up down up down up downP: I was coming up the steps li:ke this all the way up I feltDr: writes turns to turns to nods and prescription P's face P's legs smiles
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↓ or ↑
£ it was so