Chapter 11. Whose common ground?

Abstract

The chapter examines 76 audio-recorded first encounters between physiotherapists (PT) and patients. It argues that the knowledge translation during a medical visit starts by fully understanding the patient’s agenda. There are four main foci of the analysis: (1) the classification of PTs’ opening questions, which initiate the problem presentation phase of the visit, (2) the classification of patients’ answers given to those questions, (3) analyzing the relations between these question-answer pairs, and (4) the identification of dialogical mechanisms that may help or hinder the creation of common ground. Within the last aspect, the analysis demonstrates three main communicative practices: meaning negotiation and summary, question-answer style, and redirection. The first one is argued to best enhance the co-construction of common ground.