Participation in the master's thesis seminar. Exploring the lack of discussion

Studies conducted on seminar discussions reveal that the participants want active discussion, yet they often complain that this does not occur. Problems in seminar discussion have been explained by face concerns, frustration with various seminar practices, or as a strategic response to conflicting identities. This study provides an alternative viewpoint: two factors that can inhibit discussion are rigid institutional roles and turn-taking and sequence organization of the seminar. The two participants who have significant roles in the interaction are the thesis author and the discussant. The role of the other students in the seminar is unclear. They also orient to the fact that there is something problematic or unexpected in their participation. The study is based on a corpus of 25 h of videotaped master's thesis seminar discussions in a Finnish university. The data were transcribed and analyzed using ethnomethodological conversation analysis.