Questions at the end of extended turns as resources for managing participation in video-mediated interaction

In video-mediated teamwork, participants need to coordinate participation and elicit contributions, including situations where uptake is not immediately forthcoming. The present study examines how participants in a virtual teamwork simulation use questions at the end of their extended turns to manage participation. Based on four hours of video-recorded small-group online interactions, this multimodal conversation analytic study shows that polar questions and “what do you think?” questions function as turn-exit devices in two sequential environments. First, when deployed after an extended turn has already reached a transition-relevance place but received little or no uptake, questions are used as response pursuits. Second, when deployed before a transition-relevance place has been projected, they add a response-mobilizing feature to the extended turn, making speaker change conditionally relevant. Across these environments, polar questions function as requests for confirmation after summaries and proposals for joint action, while “what do you think?” questions invite co-participants to express their opinions following proposals for joint action. The findings demonstrate how questions at the end of extended turns help members manage participation and constraints specific to video-mediated interaction, including connection delays and limited mutual visual access. The study contributes to our understanding of how teamwork and participation in video-mediated environments are accomplished interactionally.