Dialogue act pairs for automated analysis of typed-chat group problem-solving

Abstract

This study counts pairs of successive problem-solving dialogue acts in typed-chat student group problem-solving. In ordinary two-person dialogue a pair of successive turns frequently corresponds to an exchange. It is hypothesized that by characterizing and counting dialogue exchanges, it will be possible to evaluate the productivity of the problem-solving dialogue. However these small-group dialogues contain more than two participants, and participants can type-chat simultaneously in overlapping dialogue exchanges. Successive turns in the linearized transcript do not necessarily correspond to two-person dialogue exchanges. This work reports on whether counting such pairs is likely to reveal dialogue behavior.