Relational Practice in Meeting Discourse in New Zealand and Japan: A Cross-Cultural Study

<p><b>This thesis explores Relational Practice in meetings in New Zealand and Japan, focussing in particular on small talk and humour which can be considered exemplary relational strategies. It examines these two areas of Relational Practice, firstly in terms of their manifestations in New Zealand and Japanese meetings, and secondly in terms of the ways they are perceived in the context of business meetings.</b></p> <p>This research takes a qualitative approach to the data analysis and employs a neo-Politeness approach to the analysis, a modified version of standard Politeness Theory. The concepts of Relational Practice and community of practice also proved to be of fundamental value in the analysis. Two kinds of data were collected: firstly meeting data from 16 authentic business meetings recorded in business organisations in New Zealand and Japan (nine from a New Zealand company and seven from a Japanese company). Secondly, perception data was collected in Japan using extended focus group interviews with Japanese business people (a total of six groups from three business organisations).</p> <p>The research involves a contrastive study using interactional sociolinguistic analytic techniques to examine manifestations of small talk and humour in meeting data collected in different contexts. The first phase of the study is cross-cultural, comparing meetings in New Zealand and Japan, and adopting a combined etic-emic approach. The second phase of the study analyses and compares the use of small talk and humour in different types of meetings, i.e. formal meetings (known as kaigi in Japanese) and informal meetings (known as uchiawase/miitingu in Japanese) in New Zealand and Japan. A further aim is to explore how Japanese business people perceive New Zealand meeting behaviours in relation to small talk and humour and to consider what might influence people‘s perceptions of these aspects of relational talk.</p> <p>The analysis of the authentic meeting data indicates that the important role of Relational Practice at work is recognised in both New Zealand and Japanese meetings, although the data also highlights potentially important differences in manifestation according to the community of practice and the type of meetings. The data demonstrates that Relational Practice is constructed among meeting members discursively and dynamically across the communities of practice and the kinds of meetings.</p> <p>The analysis of the perception data indicates that while Japanese business people do not have identical evaluations of the manifestation of any particular discourse strategy, their perceptions are mostly similar if they work in the same workplace. The data also demonstrates that the participants‘ international business experience influences their perceptions. Furthermore the analysis indicates that manifestations of small talk and humour in New Zealand meetings are not necessarily evaluated by the Japanese business people in the same or similar way as by New Zealand people.</p> <p>Through both the analysis of the meeting and perception data, this study indicates that people‘s linguistic behaviours and perceptions regarding Relational Practice are influenced not only by underlying expectations of their community of practice but also by those of the wider society in which the community of practice is positioned.</p>

Relational Practice in Meeting Discourse in New Zealand and Japan: A Cross-Cultural Study

<p><b>This thesis explores Relational Practice in meetings in New Zealand and Japan, focussing in particular on small talk and humour which can be considered exemplary relational strategies. It examines these two areas of Relational Practice, firstly in terms of their manifestations in New Zealand and Japanese meetings, and secondly in terms of the ways they are perceived in the context of business meetings.</b></p> <p>This research takes a qualitative approach to the data analysis and employs a neo-Politeness approach to the analysis, a modified version of standard Politeness Theory. The concepts of Relational Practice and community of practice also proved to be of fundamental value in the analysis. Two kinds of data were collected: firstly meeting data from 16 authentic business meetings recorded in business organisations in New Zealand and Japan (nine from a New Zealand company and seven from a Japanese company). Secondly, perception data was collected in Japan using extended focus group interviews with Japanese business people (a total of six groups from three business organisations).</p> <p>The research involves a contrastive study using interactional sociolinguistic analytic techniques to examine manifestations of small talk and humour in meeting data collected in different contexts. The first phase of the study is cross-cultural, comparing meetings in New Zealand and Japan, and adopting a combined etic-emic approach. The second phase of the study analyses and compares the use of small talk and humour in different types of meetings, i.e. formal meetings (known as kaigi in Japanese) and informal meetings (known as uchiawase/miitingu in Japanese) in New Zealand and Japan. A further aim is to explore how Japanese business people perceive New Zealand meeting behaviours in relation to small talk and humour and to consider what might influence people‘s perceptions of these aspects of relational talk.</p> <p>The analysis of the authentic meeting data indicates that the important role of Relational Practice at work is recognised in both New Zealand and Japanese meetings, although the data also highlights potentially important differences in manifestation according to the community of practice and the type of meetings. The data demonstrates that Relational Practice is constructed among meeting members discursively and dynamically across the communities of practice and the kinds of meetings.</p> <p>The analysis of the perception data indicates that while Japanese business people do not have identical evaluations of the manifestation of any particular discourse strategy, their perceptions are mostly similar if they work in the same workplace. The data also demonstrates that the participants‘ international business experience influences their perceptions. Furthermore the analysis indicates that manifestations of small talk and humour in New Zealand meetings are not necessarily evaluated by the Japanese business people in the same or similar way as by New Zealand people.</p> <p>Through both the analysis of the meeting and perception data, this study indicates that people‘s linguistic behaviours and perceptions regarding Relational Practice are influenced not only by underlying expectations of their community of practice but also by those of the wider society in which the community of practice is positioned.</p>

Nurse Talk: Features of Effective Verbal Communication Used by Expert District Nurses

<p><b>This thesis represents an appreciative enquiry to identify features of effective verbal communication between nurses and patients.</b></p> <p>Using a method developed by the Language in the Workplace Project (Stubbe 1998) two nurse participants recorded a small sample of their conversations with patients as they occurred naturally in clinical practice. These six conversations constitute the main body of raw data for the study. The data was analysed using a combination of discourse and ethnographic analysis.</p> <p>Experience in nursing, particularly insider knowledge of the context of district nursing, helped me to uncover the richness of meaning in the conversations. The subtle interconnections and nuances could easily have been missed by an outside observer.</p> <p>The study has shown that in their interactions with patients, expert nurses follow a pattern in terms of the structure and content of the conversations and it is possible to identify specific features of effective nurse-patient communication within these conversations. The most significant of these are the repertoire of linguistic skills available to nurses, the importance of small talk and the attention paid by nurses to building a working relationship with patients, in part, through conversation.</p> <p>The findings have implications for nursing education and professional development.</p>

Nurse Talk: Features of Effective Verbal Communication Used by Expert District Nurses

<p><b>This thesis represents an appreciative enquiry to identify features of effective verbal communication between nurses and patients.</b></p> <p>Using a method developed by the Language in the Workplace Project (Stubbe 1998) two nurse participants recorded a small sample of their conversations with patients as they occurred naturally in clinical practice. These six conversations constitute the main body of raw data for the study. The data was analysed using a combination of discourse and ethnographic analysis.</p> <p>Experience in nursing, particularly insider knowledge of the context of district nursing, helped me to uncover the richness of meaning in the conversations. The subtle interconnections and nuances could easily have been missed by an outside observer.</p> <p>The study has shown that in their interactions with patients, expert nurses follow a pattern in terms of the structure and content of the conversations and it is possible to identify specific features of effective nurse-patient communication within these conversations. The most significant of these are the repertoire of linguistic skills available to nurses, the importance of small talk and the attention paid by nurses to building a working relationship with patients, in part, through conversation.</p> <p>The findings have implications for nursing education and professional development.</p>

An Effortful Approach to Social Affiliation in Schizophrenia: Preliminary Evidence of Increased Theta and Alpha Connectivity during a Live Social Interaction

People with schizophrenia often experience a profound lack of motivation for social affiliation—a facet of negative symptoms that detrimentally impairs functioning. However, the mechanisms underlying social affiliative deficits remain poorly understood, particularly under realistic social contexts. Here, we investigated subjective reports and electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity in schizophrenia during a live social interaction. Individuals with schizophrenia (n = 16) and healthy controls (n = 29) completed a face-to-face interaction with a confederate while having EEG recorded. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Closeness condition designed to elicit feelings of closeness through self-disclosure or a Small-Talk condition with minimal disclosure. Compared to controls, patients reported lower positive emotional experiences and feelings of closeness across conditions, but they showed comparably greater subjective affiliative responses for the Closeness (vs. Small-Talk) condition. Additionally, patients in the Closeness (vs. Small-Talk) condition displayed a global increase in connectivity in theta and alpha frequency bands that was not observed for controls. Importantly, greater theta and alpha connectivity was associated with greater subjective affiliative responding, greater negative symptoms, and lower disorganized symptoms in patients. Collectively, findings indicate that patients, because of pronounced negative symptoms, utilized a less efficient, top-down mediated strategy to process social affiliation.

Teaching Theory and Space: Human Territoriality in Political Science

This article describes a technique that helps students to understand how a theory about human characteristics may impact behavior. I use a mini-simulation in which two volunteers engage in small talk, I point out that they engage with one another at a certain distance and angle that reflects social space. As the exercise progresses, students easily relate to the theory of human territoriality, which is defined as the symbolic and physical connection to a space considered as their own. This mini-simulation achieves the following learning objectives: understanding (1) that theories are relevant and help to explain human behavior; (2) the workings of the individual level of analysis; and (3) that theories are not universal and have limits to their application across culture, time, and space. This teaching technique does not require preparation time or resources, and students easily comprehend the expected learning outcomes.

Effects of a Systematic Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention Using a Speech-Generating Device on Multistep Requesting and Generic Small Talk for Children With Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention using a speech-generating device (SGD) on acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of multistep requesting and generic small talk in three children with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Method A multiple-baseline design across participants combined with a posttreatment multiple-generalization-probe design was used to assess acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of target communicative behaviors with the experimenter and the participants' familiar communication partners (FCPs). Intervention was composed of systematic instruction in the use of an SGD using least-to-most prompting, constant time delay, error correction, and reinforcement. Results Visual analysis established a strong functional relationship between the independent variable and the two dependent variables (i.e., requesting preferred activities, engaging in generic small talk) for all three participants. Effect size indicator analyses corroborated these findings, indicating strong effects for performing multistep requesting and medium effects for engaging in generic small talk. All participants were able to generalize the acquired communicative behaviors to request new and untrained snacks and activities and engage in generic small talk with FCPs who were not part of the training. Maintenance of acquired communicative behaviors was demonstrated 3 weeks post completion of intervention. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence that AAC intervention using an SGD and incorporating least-to-most prompting, constant time delay, error correction, and reinforcement is effective in terms of multistep requesting and generic small talk behaviors in children with severe ASD. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16663630