scholarly journals Turn-Initial Discourse Markers in L2 Spanish Conversations: Insights from Conversation Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta García García
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
L2 Spanish

scholarly journals WHAT DO PEOPLE DO TO SUSTAIN A CONVERSATION: ANALYSIS OF THE FEATURES AND THE SPEECH FUNCTION OF A CASUAL CONVERSATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Latifa Ika Sari ◽  
Ria Hermina Sari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Negotiation Of Meaning ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Spoken Text ◽  
Monitoring Strategies ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Vague Language

Conversation Analysis (CA) has a great implication in the second or foreign language teaching and learning. This study was aimed to analyse a casual conversation, to identify what people do to sustain a conversation. The conversation, which lasted for 20 minutes and involved three speakers, was transcribed verbatim. Several features of the spoken text are analysed: spontaneity, interactivity, interpersonal features, coherence features, negotiation of meaning, and speech function. The result of the analysis showed that there are several strategies used by the speakers: time-gaining strategies (filled pauses; frequent use of conjunctions: and, but, so); using chunks and producing one clause or phrase in small �runs�; self-monitoring strategies (repetition, backtracking), and interactional strategies (backchanneling, showing amusement by laughing or chuckling, using certain discourse markers, hedges, vague language, showing empathy by completing and repeating each other�s utterances). The speakers also negotiate interpersonally and logico-semantically to keep the conversation going on. The equal number of rejoinders that each speaker produces indicates that they are willing to support each other to sustain the conversation. This study implies that when teaching speaking, English teachers should include communication strategies to achieve the goals of communication.Keywords: casual conversation; negotiation of meaning; speech function; strategies.

Showing structure

Pragmatics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Rendle-Short
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function ◽  
The Way

Um and uh are generally considered to be indicative of dysfluency and uncertainty in speech production. However, analysis of the academic seminar indicates that the distribution of um and uh is not random. In specific well-defined environments um is used to indicate the underlying structure of the talk. Although Swerts (1998) has already suggested that fillers such as um and uh could be treated as discourse markers in Dutch, the notion that such tokens are functioning as discourse markers has not been developed in detail. This paper analyses the role played by um in a series of computer science seminars. Using traditional conversation analysis techniques, the paper focuses on the way in which um indicates structure in the academic seminar by maintaining coherence across bits of talk. It thus argues that in specific well-defined environments um functions as a discourse marker. This paper therefore addresses such issues as the role and function of um in seminar talk, the environments in which it occurs, and its use in indicating the structure of the talk to the listening audience.

scholarly journals Inferential Practices in Social Interaction: A Conversation-Analytic Account

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnulf Deppermann
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Cognitive Agents ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Erroneous Inferences ◽  
Fourth Position ◽  
Linguistic Means

Abstract This paper argues that conversation analysis has largely neglected the fact that meaning in interaction relies on inferences to a high degree. Participants treat each other as cognitive agents, who imply and infer meanings, which are often consequential for interactional progression. Based on the study of audio- and video-recordings from German talk-in-interaction, the paper argues that inferences matter to social interaction in at least three ways. They can be explicitly formulated; they can be (conventionally) indexed, but not formulated; or they may be neither indexed nor formulated yet would be needed for the correct understanding of a turn. The last variety of inferences usually remain tacit, but are needed for smooth interactional progression. Inferences in this case become an observable discursive phenomenon if misunderstandings are treated by the explication of correct (accepted) and wrong (unaccepted) inferences. The understanding of referential terms, analepsis, and ellipsis regularly rely on inferences. Formulations, third-position repairs, and fourth-position explications of erroneous inferences are practices of explicating inferences. There are conventional linguistic means like discourse markers, connectives, and response particles that index specific kinds of inferences. These practices belong to a larger class of inferential practices, which play an important role for indexing and accomplishing intersubjectivity in talk in interaction.

Counseling and new media technologies: A comparison of problem presentations in e-mail and in chat

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wyke Stommel ◽  
Fleur Van der Houwen
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Online Counseling ◽  
Counseling Program ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Email Counseling ◽  
Counseling Clients ◽  
E Mail ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
New Media Technologies

In this article, we examine problem presentations in e-mail and chat counseling. Previous studies of online counseling have found that the medium (e.g., chat, email) impacts the unfolding interaction. However, the implications for counseling are unclear. We focus on problem presentations and use conversation analysis to compare 15 chat and 22 e-mail interactions from the same counseling program. We find that in e-mail counseling, counselors open up the interactional space to discuss various issues, whereas in chat, counselors restrict problem presentations and give the client less space to elaborate. We also find that in e-mail counseling, clients use narratives to present their problem and orient to its seriousness and legitimacy, while in chat counseling, they construct problem presentations using a symptom or a diagnosis. Furthermore, in email counseling, clients close their problem presentations stating completeness, while in chat counseling, counselors treat clients’ problem presentations as incomplete. Our findings shed light on how the medium has implications for counseling.

Formulating another’s report of troubles in peer support

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Pudlinski
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Mental Health System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Telephone Support ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Professional Perspective

This study stems from an interest in peer support talk, an underexplored area of research, and in how supportive actions such as formulated summaries function in comparison to more professional healthcare settings. Using conversation analysis, this study explores 35 instances of formulations within 65 calls to four different ‘warm lines’, a term for peer-to-peer telephone support within the community mental health system in the United States. Formulations can be characterized across two related axes: client versus professional perspective, and directive versus nondirective. The findings show that formulations within peer support were overwhelmingly nondirective, in terms of meeting institutional agendas to let callers talk. However, formulations ranged from client-oriented ones that highlight or repeat caller reports to those which transform caller reports through integrating past caller experiences or implicit caller emotions. These tactics are found to have similarities to how formulations function in professional healthcare settings.

Managing uncertainty in healthcare interpreter-mediated interaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-164
Author(s):  
Claudio Baraldi ◽  
Laura Gavioli
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Social Systems Theory ◽  
Intercultural Mediators ◽  
Or History

This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’ who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where (1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular, doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s questions.

Patients’ practices for taking the initiative in decision-making in outpatient psychiatric consultations

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuya Kushida ◽  
Takeshi Hiramoto ◽  
Yuriko Yamakawa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Treatment Decision ◽  
Close Inspection ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Treatment Decision Making ◽  
The Way

In spite of increasing advocacy for patients’ participation in psychiatric decision-making, there has been little research on how patients actually participate in decision-making in psychiatric consultations. This study explores how patients take the initiative in decision-making over treatment in outpatient psychiatric consultations in Japan. Using the methodology of conversation analysis, we analyze 85 video-recorded ongoing consultations and find that patients select between two practices for taking the initiative in decision-making: making explicit requests for a treatment and displaying interest in a treatment without explicitly requesting it. A close inspection of transcribed interaction reveals that patients make explicit requests under the circumstances where they believe the candidate treatment is appropriate for their condition, whereas they merely display interest in a treatment when they are not certain about its appropriateness. By fitting practices to take the initiative in decision-making with the way they describe their current condition, patients are optimally managing their desire for particular treatments and the validity of their initiative actions. In conclusion, we argue that the orderly use of the two practices is one important resource for patients’ participation in treatment decision-making.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document