Talking with Abuelo: Performing Authenticity in a Multicultural, Multisited Family

Multilingua ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Vidal
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Authority Figure ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Family Identities ◽  
Multicultural Family

AbstractTaking an interactional sociolinguistic approach, this study explores how multicultural and multilingual siblings interact with their Spanish grandfather and how, through the use of styling and stylization in these interactions, they negotiate and construct multicultural family identities. Using Tannen’s power and solidarity framework, I analyze three excerpts from a seven-hour corpus of naturally occurring face-to-face recorded conversations between my sisters, my grandfather, and myself, from 1984 in Spain to explore how speakers use stylization to identify themselves as legitimate members of a multilingual and multicultural family, ranging from acts of identity to mockery. The analyses show that while stylization provided Abuelo with resources for creating harmony with his granddaughters as he reappropriated their Spanish usage, it also created a source for mockery among the sisters. In their conversations with their grandfather, the granddaughters used stylization to perform acts of identity through reported speech about their experiences in Spain and their feelings about their extended family, and this styled them as dutiful granddaughters. Finally, Abuelo styled himself as the authority figure in the house by speaking English to the girls, albeit an English heavily influenced by his Spanish. In response, the granddaughters stylized him, mocking his authority in the process. The study demonstrates how stylization is intimately tied with acts of identity and underscores the affiliative and disaffiliative interactional stances for creating authenticity in a transnational family.

scholarly journals International Real Estate Review

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-104
Author(s):  
Robert A. Simons ◽  
◽  
Jesse Saginor ◽  
Aly H. Karam ◽  
Hlengani Baloyi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Contingent Valuation ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
Bidder Behavior ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Residential Properties

This study reports the results of a contingent valuation (CV) survey that was carried out in Johannesburg, South Africa. Students at Wits University conducted more than 300 face-to-face interviews with Africans living and/or working in Soweto, an African township located on the outskirts of Johannesburg, and nearby areas. The questions they asked were designed to determine the perceptions of risk regarding airborne mine dust and radon, a naturally occurring gas, and the effect that these perceptions had on the valuation of residential properties impacted by these substances. A probit model was used to evaluate the determinants of bidder behavior, using respondent demographics and other characteristics as independent variables. Residential property discounts for potentially contaminated housing sites by marginal bidders at the top of the market varied from -24% to -50%. Research issues in developing countries were addressed. Contingent valuation results in South Africa were compared to published results in the United States.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jennifer B. Saunders
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
The United States ◽  
Birth Experience ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Family Connections ◽  
Narrative Performances

This chapter introduces the Gupta family through Satya, a member of the extended family. While his story is exceptional as his parents were Indian citizens living in Nigeria at the time of his birth in the United States, his family’s narrative performances of his birth experience demonstrate the ways that narratives help to create and maintain transnational family connections. Satya’s story and the family’s performances of it introduces readers to larger global and transnational processes and serves as an example of the ways that performance analysis can help uncover the methods by which narratives create transnational experiences. Additionally, this chapter describes the content and organization of the book.

The Applicability of Movies in Legal Language Teaching: Evidence from Multi-Dimensional Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Pierfranca Forchini
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Language Research ◽  
American Legal System

The aim of the paper is to examine courtroom discourse by comparing naturally-occurring trials to movie trials in order to determine whether such movies can be used in the teaching of Legal English. For the purpose, data are retrieved from the American Movie-Trial Corpus and the American Real-Trial Corpus (built for the present analysis), and are compared via corpus-driven criteria and Biber’s Multi-Dimensional Analysis. The findings show very little linguistic and textual variability in the two investigated domains and thus confirm that the linguistic similarity of movie and naturally-occurring conversation is also present at a more specialized level. Hence, the claim that it is beyond dispute that the cinematic portrayal of the American legal system is far removed from legal reality is confuted and it is, consequently, suggested that movie language could be used as a remarkable source for learning not only the general usage of face-to-face conversation, as recently documented, but also the more specialized features of courtroom discourse. The findings also add value both to the role of corpora in teaching, which is often emphasized by numerous authoritative linguists, and to their methodological value in legal language research.

Living arrangements and loneliness of South Asian immigrant seniors in Edmonton, Canada

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 552-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHEUK FAN NG ◽  
HERBERT C. NORTHCOTT
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Living Arrangement ◽  
Asian Immigrant ◽  
South Asian Immigrants ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
South Asian Immigrant

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the relationships between self-reported loneliness and living arrangements. A structured questionnaire with some open-ended questions was administered face-to-face in English, Hindi or Punjabi to a sample of 161 elderly South Asian immigrants 60 or more years of age living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 2003. The majority of respondents said that they never felt lonely. More than one in three (37.3%) respondents indicated that they felt lonely occasionally, frequently or all of the time. Those living alone were significantly more likely to report feeling lonely at least occasionally than were those living with others, especially those living with their spouse in an extended family. The fact that South Asian immigrant seniors typically lived with others, often in an extended family with or without their spouse, and rarely lived alone protected them to some extent from loneliness. However, our findings showed that among those living with others, it was the amount of waking time spent alone at home and the quality of family relationships rather than living arrangement per se that significantly predicted self-reported loneliness. Nevertheless, living in a larger household was associated with spending less time alone. We discuss plausible influences of culture on expectations regarding family and social relationships and on the meaning of being alone, as well as practical implications for addressing loneliness in a multi-cultural society.

“Mista, Are You in a Good Mood?”: Stylization to Negotiate Interaction in an Urban Hawai’i Classroom

Multilingua ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Lamb
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Diverse Classroom ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Public Middle School ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Asymmetrical Power

AbstractThe transgressive use of language by out-group speakers, or crossing is used in a variety of ways to achieve both affiliative and disaffiliative ends among youths. However, crossing can also be used as an affiliative resource in asymmetrical power relations between teachers and students. Reporting on the findings of a 1.5 year ethnography of an English/language arts classroom at a multilingual and multiethnic public middle school in Hawai’i, this paper explores one teacher’s use of stylization practices which take the form of crossing. The teacher stylizes students’ voices through ventriloquizing, which is an affiliative resource when strategically embedded in ritual oppositional frames of interaction. However, when embedded in other interactional frames, this transgressive use of language results in acts of insult or mocking. I analyze audio recordings of naturally occurring interaction to explore how Hawai’i Creole (or Pidgin) is used transgressively in reported speech by the teacher, an “out-group” individual, for negotiating interactions in his English language arts classroom. Instances of transgressive language emerge as artfully performed strategies that provide a rich site for the construction of affiliative identities. The use of crossing allows the teacher to take liminal stances between offense and respect to strategically manage student participation in this diverse classroom. These findings point to the important role that crossing plays in acts of identity through reported speech where the performance of crossing within positively valued, jocular oppositional classroom rituals demonstrates the capacity for crossing as a contributing factor to the emergence of a shared sense of community in the classroom.

scholarly journals Alignment During Synchronous Video Versus Written Chat L2 Interactions: A Methodological Exploration

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Marije Michel ◽  
Marco Cappellini
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Structural Alignment ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
Oral Interaction

AbstractConversational alignment (i.e., the automatic tendency of interactants to reuse each other's morphosyntactic structures and lexical choices in natural dialogue) is a well-researched phenomenon in native (Pickering & Ferreira, 2008) and to a smaller extent in second language (L2) speakers (Jackson, 2018) as confirmed by many highly controlled lab-based experimental studies investigating face-to-face oral interaction. Only a few studies have explored alignment in more naturally occurring L2 interactions (e.g., Dao, Trofimovich, & Kennedy, 2018), some of them extending the context to written computer-mediated communication (SCMC) (e.g., Michel & Smith, 2018).The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a closer look at alignment in L2 conversations mediated by two different types of SCMC (videoconference vs. text chat). We explored lexical as well as structural alignment in three target languages (Chinese, French, and German) involving interactional partners of different status (L2 peer, L1 peer, and L1 tutor).Results revealed that lexical and structural alignment are both present and observable in different SCMC contexts. From a methodological point of view, we discuss how different analyses suit the data generated by the affordances of the different SCMC contexts in the target languages and argue for a more dynamic and pervasive perspective on interaction.

Talk, voice and gestures in reported speech: toward an integrated approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dris Soulaimani
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Social Field ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Semiotic Resources

Drawing on Arabic data sets, this study examines reported speech in naturally occurring conversations. Building on earlier work in discourse analysis, the study demonstrates how reported speech is a multiparty social field in which much of the reporting involves not only speech but also intricate forms of voice patterns and embodied reenactments. The study argues that speakers create an integrated complex of reporting, including multimodal utterances that go beyond the stream of speech to include relevant nonlinguistic sounds and embodied gestures. Analysis also shows that participants engage in verbal and nonverbal forms of stance (evaluation) toward the reported activities. The speaker makes certain these stance displays are available to the addressees to achieve co-participation. In contrast to studies which restrict analysis to linguistic phenomena, this study approaches reported speech as a fine performance in which different kinds of semiotic resources are brought together.

scholarly journals Sociocultural Practices Affecting the Care of Preterm Infants in the Ghanaian Community

2020 ◽  
pp. 104365962097509
Author(s):  
Esther Abena Adama ◽  
Deborah Sundin ◽  
Sara Bayes
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Herbal Medicines ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Sociocultural Practices ◽  
Household Members ◽  
Communal Living

Introduction Although culture is an integral part of health, there is scarcity of evidence on the influence of culture on caregiving experiences of parents of preterm infants. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of sociocultural practices on caring for preterm infants in the Ghanaian community. Method Narrative inquiry was utilized to explore the influence of sociocultural practices on the care of preterm infants from 21 mothers, 9 fathers, and 12 household members. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews and observations at participants’ homes. Results Analysis of data resulted in three threads/themes—respect for the elderly, use of herbal medicines, and communal living. Discussion Community and extended family members have great influence on the care of preterm infants. Traditional herbal medicines are considered effective in treating traditional illnesses among preterm infants. Understanding the influence of culture on the care of vulnerable preterm infants in the community is essential in developing interventions for infant survival.

scholarly journals Acting out on Twitter: Affordances for animating reported speech in written computer-mediated communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wikström
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Acting Out ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Oral Practices ◽  
Speech Reports

Abstract Quotative be like is a construction associated with informal spoken contexts and, especially, with various forms of embodied enactments. This study examines instances of quotative be like in a corpus of Twitter data (1,000,000 tweets; 1,113 quotative instances). Special attention is paid to how users of Twitter employ the platform’s affordances to animate their speech reports – i.e. to represent voices, enact body language, or otherwise ‘dramatize’ the speech reports. The aim is to investigate how a linguistic format which is richly embodied in face-to-face interaction gets ‘re-embodied’ on Twitter. The study finds that animation of reported speech on Twitter is visually, and predominantly typographically, afforded. In the material, oral practices are more frequently reconfigured and remediated rather than directly reproduced. That is to say, even when users are not reproducing spoken utterances, they often employ graphical strategies that are mainly understandable by analogy to spoken and embodied face-to-face interaction. However, users also draw on emergent online repertoires with no face-to-face analogues, such as ‘pure’ typographical play and the recruitment of established online memes. Thus, the findings suggest that orality lingers as a trace, but is not a necessary component, in bringing reported speech to life in a text-based computer-mediated setting.

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