Actions of known-answer questions in guided tours

Abstract

This study explores how guided tour interaction is achieved through certain question formats, specifically known-answer questions (KAQs), as they are deployed by guides for subsequently designing their talk to fit perceived visitor knowledge and for inviting visitor involvement in question-initiated talk. The approximately 470 minutes of video-recorded data come from guided tours in Japan, Belgium, South Korea, and Cambodia. In these tours, English was used as a common language among local guides and their foreign visitors. Analysis revealed how mobile tours are accomplished through sequences initiated by guides’ KAQs, exposing the guides’ strategic deployment of these questions and demonstrating how they subsequently utilized visitor responses to construct their talk. Comparison of the findings from the current study with those from previous research on KAQs in other institutional talk, such as educational and political settings, implies that, depending on the interactional goals, KAQs may perform diverse actions.