In this thesis, conversation analysis (CA) is applied to study “risk strategies” in parent-teacher-student conferences in the Swedish nine-year compulsory school. The material consists of 80 conferences collected at two different points in time: 45 from the period 1992–93 (at that time called kvartssamtal, lit. “quarter of an hour conference”) and another 35 collected in 2004 (at the present time, and since the latest curriculum from 1994, called utvecklingssamtal, lit. “development conference”). All conferences in the material concern students in the 5th grade, i.e. when students are 11–12 years old. Each year, approximately 2.6 million student conferences in total are held in the Swedish compulsory school and upper-secondary school, involving about 5.5 million participants. Yet, we have virtually no knowledge of what actually happens in these conferences, i.e. how they are conducted. Hence, this study contributes to “filling the gap” and to meeting this want, the how of the student conference as a practical achievement. The aim of the study is to analyze conversational strategies in use to handle “risk”, i.e. a moment whose outcome is uncertain and that could possibly lead to a problem. Here, strategy refers to recurrent line of action and does not necessarily comprise speaker awareness. Strategies are part (and the materialization) of everyday cultural norms, rules of social behavior and habitualized “ways of practice”. They are used “for self”, “for someone else” or “for all” and should be considered in the light of Goffman’s notion of “face-work”, i.e. what the speaker does in order to counteract possibly face-threatening acts. The study is aimed at three particular situations of considerable analytic value: (i) the opening of the conference, (ii) the initiation of talk about trouble (problem), and (iii) the closing of the conference, or more immediately, the possibility for students and parents to raise their own issues. The results show that the conference opening is a coordinated achievement and to a great extent oriented to meet the possibility of the student being nervous. The conference is an “ordinary conference” and the opening questions are “what I ask any student”. When a speaker initiates talk about possible trouble, the pace decreases and utterances very often comprise “perturbations of delivery”, i.e. filled and unfilled pauses, mitigating expressions, abandoned turn beginnings and restarts, “repairs”, etc. These and other circumstances make it possible to forecast the action as (possibly) a trouble-initiating action. At the closing of the conference, students and parents are commonly offered the opportunity to raise their own issues. However, when analyzing the different ways of offering a prolongation of the conference, the study shows that the opportunity is strongly restricted, e.g. due to the design of the question. / I denna avhandling används samtalsanalys (”conversation analysis”) för att studera ”riskstrategier” i samtal mellan lärare, elever och föräldrar i grundskolan. Materialet består av 80 samtal som insamlats vid två olika tidpunkter: 45 st. inspelade 1992–93 (kvartssamtal, eller den mer formella benämningen enskilda samtal) och ytterligare 35 st. inspelade 2004 (utvecklingssamtal, den benämning som gäller sedan den senaste läroplanen). I avhandlingen används elevsamtal som ett samlingsnamn. Alla elevsamtal i materialet gäller elever i årskurs 5, dvs. när eleverna är 11–12 år gamla. Varje år genomförs ca. 2,6 miljoner elevsamtal i grundskolan och gymnasieskolan sammantaget, möten som involverar ca. 5,5 miljoner samtalsdeltagare. Även om elevsamtalen förekommer flitigt, vet vi nästan ingenting om vad som egentligen händer i dessa möten, dvs. hur de genomförs. Denna avhandling kan därför betraktas som ett bidrag till ambitionen att fylla detta tomrum något; hur samtalsdeltagarna genomför elevsamtal. Avhandlingens syfte är att studera kommunikativa strategier som tas i bruk för att hantera ”risk”, dvs. ett moment vars utgång är oviss och som potentiellt kan skapa eller leda till problem. Med strategi avses återkommande tillvägagångssätt och omfattar inte nödvändigtvis talarens medvetenhet. Strategier är en del (och materialiseringen) av vardagskulturella normer, umgängesregler och habitualiserade ”sätt att göra”. De används ”för talaren själv”, ”för någon annan” eller ”för alla” och bör betraktas i ljuset av Goffmans begrepp ”face-work”, dvs. vad talaren gör för att motverka potentiellt ansiktshotande ”incidenter”. I avhandlingen fokuseras tre specifika talsituationer av väsentligt analytiskt värde: (1) hur samtalet startas, (2) hur man initierar tal om problem och (3) hur samtalet avslutas, eller närmare, möjligheten för elever och föräldrar att lyfta egna ”övriga frågor”. Resultaten visar att elevsamtalets inledning är en koordinerad prestation som i synnerhet är orienterad mot eventualiteten att eleven är nervös. Elevsamtalet är ett ”vanligt samtal” och lärarens inledande frågor är ”vad jag brukar fråga alla andra elever”. När en talare inleder tal om ett potentiellt problem (problemmoment) går tempot ner och yttrandena omfattar ofta ”störningar och upphakningar”, dvs. pauser, pausfyllnader, förmildrande uttryck, övergivna turstarter och omstarter, ”reparationer”, etc.. Dessa egenskaper (och andra) gör det möjligt att ”förutse” handlingen som (potentiellt sett) en probleminitierande handling. Vid elevsamtalets avslutning är det vanligt att eleverna och föräldrarna erbjuds möjligheten att lyfta sina egna frågor och funderingar. En analys av lärarnas olika sätt att erbjuda möjlighet att förlänga samtalet visar emellertid att sådan möjlighet ofta är starkt begränsad, t.ex. beroende på frågeyttrandets form. / <p>Avhandlingen är publicerad med tillstånd av Arbetslivsinstitutet (http://www.arbetslivsinstitutet.se/publikationer/detaljerad.asp?ID=1632).</p>

The role of diabetes specialist nurses in delivering diabetes consultations has been recognised for more than a decade, particularly since the publication of the Standards for Specialist Education and Practice by the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) in 2001. However, evidence on how the consultation is delivered, together with patients’ experiences, is somewhat limited. This study examined diabetes specialist nurses’ and patients’ consultation experiences in primary care. It also investigated the process and outcome of these diabetes consultations. This research utilised a sequential mixed methods single approach design in which qualitative was followed by quantitative investigation. In the qualitative stage, 7 diabetes specialist nurses and 7 patients were interviewed separately, followed by observations of 7 nurse-patient consultations. The data from the interviews were analysed thematically, whereas the data from nurse patient consultations were examined though conversation analysis (CA). The investigation continued quantitatively, where the questionnaires were developed based on the qualitative findings and adaptation of the Consultation Quality Index (CQI-2). Following on from a pilot study, the questionnaires were sent to adult patients with diabetes (n=150) and 40 completed questionnaires were returned for statistical analysis. The qualitative and quantitative findings were then merged in a matrix diagram to reveal holistic findings on consultation experiences. The thematic analysis of patients’ interviews produced five themes which were: ‘I don’t like living with diabetes’, ‘Daily problems’, ‘Coping with my diabetes’, ‘How the nurses approach me’ and ‘My expectations toward the diabetes specialist nurses’ . In contrast, the themes from the nurses focused not only on the diabetes consultation but also care management issues: ‘Current problems’, ‘My expectations towards the patients’, ‘Consultation approaches’, ‘Personal development’ and ‘Team working’. Details on the sequence and scope of consultations were obtained from conversation analysis which highlighted the approaches commonly used by the diabetes specialist nurses. The statistical analysis showed associations between partnership and empathy (P=0.01), empathy and outcome (P= 0.005), information giving and consultation time (P= 0.05). The integration of qualitative and quantitative findings suggested ‘Consultation stages’ as a theme, and also four themes related to consultation experiences: ‘Day to day hurdle’, ‘Knowing each other’, ‘Shared expectations’and ‘Working together’. This study has identified the value and processes of the nurse-patient consultation in diabetes care from a nursing context. In general, the patients experienced their consultations with the DSNs positively. They highlighted key personal characteristics of the nurses. Similarly, the nurses considered their role in delivering consultation as crucial. Some challenges were evident including patients’ behaviours, the diabetes knowledge of other health care professionals and the lack of administrative support. The association between the nurses’ empathetical approaches and the patients’ outcomes needs further investigation.

Within the stream of research on entrepreneurial opportunity there is a school of thought that affords entrepreneurs an agentic role in the creation of opportunities – with opportunities understood as a combination of both product and market innovation. Recently scholars working from this Creative Model have associated the opportunity shaping work of entrepreneurs with sensemaking – a social process in which teams gather information, ascribe meaning, and take action in the face of the uncertainties, which some have said define the context of entrepreneurship. Few, if any, scholars have studied the naturally occurring conversations between entrepreneurial team members as they discuss the information, meaning, and action relevant to their innovation efforts. This dissertation makes a contribution to current understanding of entrepreneurship by capturing the naturally occurring conversations of innovative entrepreneurial teams in action, analyzing these recorded conversations for use of sensemaking language, and comparing the language patterns between teams that achieve different levels of performance.

This thesis examines interactions between professionals and children who have been identified as having social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). More specifically, this thesis examines video-recorded interactions that take place during the delivery of two interventions: one-to-one pastoral care within a primary school, and group coaching for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Using conversation analysis (CA) and discursive psychology (DP) these data were analysed to identify the ways in which professionals package and deliver their support, and manage psychological notions to do with the self, or what I call self-work - moments within the interactions when children are supported to talk about their emotions, feelings, and behaviour in order to help them make sense of the difficulties they are experiencing; and moments within the interaction when children are given the skills and knowledge they need to manage, change, or overcome those difficulties. The main findings from this thesis are that support and self-work are not taken-for-granted outcomes simply achieved because children attend intervention programmes. Instead, support and self-work are packaged and delivered through ordinary conversational practices. Chapter 4 shows how encouraging self-assessment supports a child s agency and participation to construct a more positive version of their self. Chapter 5 respecifies reassurance as an interactional practice to show how it works to prevent the emotional affect of a child s personal troubles becoming internalised and self-imposed. Chapter 6 shows how questions promote the collaborative building of knowledge, and how person references normalise and unpathologise emotions often bound to ADHD constructs. The findings from this thesis demonstrate applicability to both research and practice by offering a unique insight into the interactional environments of pastoral care and coaching. Firstly, by examining the interactional landscapes of these two interventions Chapter 3 provides a rich overview of pastoral care and coaching activities to show how these interventions are accomplished as real life activities. Secondly, by examining the conversational practices through which pastoral care and coaching are delivered this thesis respecifies everyday notions of support and self-work as members situated actions, and in so doing furthers our knowledge and understanding of these somewhat abstract notions. Such findings are valuable because interventions are informed by theoretical guidelines that recommend children experiencing difficulty can be helped if they are supported to understand their difficulties and to develop a more positive sense of self. However, such guidelines offer little in terms of how such recommendations should be put into practice by the professionals working with children. This research uncovers some of the ways in which theoretical recommendations are delivered via interactional practices, to make visible members methods for delivering support and managing self-work . The need for this work to be done is that support and self-work are performed as much through the ways in which professionals deliver their interventions, as it is through the content of those interventions.

La recherche porte sur l’instrumentation des processus d’évaluations pédagogiques avec des technologies. Cette recherche-action permise dans le cadre d’un contrat de Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche (CIFRE) dans l’entreprise de conception des technologies, NEOPTEC, vise à analyser les pratiques langagières permettant le développement des technologies et celles permettant leur ancrage dans les pratiques d’évaluation. Le corpus a été constitué auprès des concepteurs et usagers des technologies. Il s’appuie sur la prise de notes en situations d’activités professionnelles, sur des enregistrements sonores et audiovisuels explorés à l’aide de l’Analyse de Conversation et de l’ethnométhodologie, ainsi que sur une collecte des documents et traces numériques réalisés dans le cadre des activités évaluatives. Cette recherche offre une réflexion sur la manière d’instrumenter un processus d’évaluation par l’intégration de la technologie et met en évidence les apports de celle-ci pour l’Éducation. / This action-research focuses on the use of digital technologies for educational assessment. The research has been made possible through an Industrial Training Research Convention (CIFRE contract of) contract with the company NEOPTEC, which develops assessment technologies. The aim is to analyze the linguistic practices enabling development of technologies and those enabling assessment practices. The corpus has been constituted through the observation of designers and users of technology. It relies on analysis of notes taken in professional situations, of sound and video recordings, which are explored using Conversation Analysis and Ethnomethodology, and of documents and digital traces produced through assessment activities. This research provides a reflection on technology’s role in the implementation of an instrument-based evaluation process and on its benefits for education.

The following thesis analyses the form and importance of extreme case formulations based on more than 10 research interviews. Extreme case formulations, i.e. formulations comprising expressions such as "nothing", "everything" or "noone", which present a phenomenon or a circumstance according to its minimal or maximal properties, can constitute a complication in the analysis of research interviews. This thesis expand the existing hypothesis of extreme case formulations by adding new findings, for example the bipolarity of extreme case formulations. In the analysed data, these do often occur together with different clasifiers, which either weaken (softeners) or strengthen (intensifiers) their extreme force. At the same time the following thesis broadens the research of extreme case formulations of interdisciplinary approach, which uses the findings from psychology and rhetoric. The conducted research is furthermore completed with the acoustic analysis of semantically extreme formulations, whose results show that extreme case formulations often tend to be acoustically emphasized. Keywords: extreme case formulation, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, interview, Czech

Este trabalho tem como objetivo pesquisar, demonstrar e analisar de que modo os aspectos da oralidade se manifestam no texto escrito jornalístico, mais precisamente em manchetes e títulos de notícias no Jornal da Tarde. Para tal proposta, buscamos verificar inicialmente o perfil do leitor de jornais e suas preferências de assuntos em uma época de informações rápidas e superficiais. Aliado a essa pesquisa, fizemos um estudo sobre a linguagem jornalística que, de forma recorrente, apresenta linguagem cotidiana vinculada aos fenômenos da língua falada e da língua escrita, que são bem explorados pelo jornal. Concentramos, assim, nosso trabalho em estudos específicos sobre a manchete e títulos de notícias que dão visibilidade às notícias veiculadas pelos jornais e têm o propósito de chamar a atenção do leitor. Selecionamos as manchetes e títulos de notícias que tiveram como base, frases proverbiais. Essas fórmulas fixas, entretanto, sofreram adaptações que chamamos de reenunciação e retextualização (détournement). Essa retextualização provoca efeito de humor, crítica ou ironia ao parodiar o provérbio original que é uma das formas de se empregar a linguagem mais distensa para chamar a atenção do leitor. Todo esse processo de pesquisa e análise baseou-se na Análise do Discurso, na Análise da Conversação, estudos sobre a linguagem jornalística e trabalhos sobre provérbios. Como os provérbios são perpetuados na memória coletiva, ao serem retextualizados evidenciam a criatividade do enunciador das manchetes e títulos de notícias que transforma o perene, o previsível no inusitado para surpreender o leitor como é o caso do Jornal da Tarde. / The aim of this paper is to research, demonstrate and analyze in which way the aspects of orality are expressed in the journalist written text, more precisely in headlines and news titles from Jornal da Tarde. For such proposal, we initially intend to verify the profile of newspaper readers and their subject preferences in a time of fast and superficial information. Within this research, a study about journalistic language has been made, which presents. The current language joined to the spoken and written language phenomena which are well explored by the newspaper. Our paper is concentrated in specific studies about the headline and news titles which give sight to the news printed by the newspaper and have the aim of calling the readers attention. The headlines and news titles, which were based on proverbial sentences, have been selected. However, these fixed formulas got adapted, which is called reenunciation and retextualization (détournement). This retextualization provokes humor, critic or ironic effect in parodying the original proverb which is a way of using the looser language to call the readers attention. All this research and analyze process was based in Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis, studies about journalistic language and papers about proverbs. As the proverbs are perpetuated in people memory, as soon as they are retextualized, they evidence the creativity of the headline and news titles announcer which changes the perennial, the predictable to the unexpected to surprise the reader, as seen in Jornal da Tarde.

A repetição representa, certamente, uma das marcas da língua falada, cuja relevância para a produção e a compreensão do texto falado é atestada por diversos estudos, concernentes à Análise da Conversação, que se voltam à observação de tal fenômeno, principalmente no que se refere a seus aspectos formais e funcionais. O presente trabalho pauta-se na tipologia funcional das repetições proposta por Luiz Antônio Marcuschi, um dos mais renomados estudiosos da conversação, para analisar os seus efeitos interacionais. Assim, a partir do arcabouço teórico fornecido pela Análise da Conversação e pela Sociolingüística Interacional, procuramos compreender a relação existente entre diferentes tipos de repetição e dois traços qualitativos que podem permear as interações verbais: a colaboração e o conflito. / Repetition is a trait of spoken language whose relevance, both for production and comprehension of the spoken text, is highlighted in a number of studies on Conversation Analysis concerned with observing this phenomenon, especially with reference to its formal and functional aspects. This current study focuses on the functional typology of repetition proposed by Luiz Antônio Marcuschi, one of the most renowned academics of conversation, to analyze its interactional effects. Through the theoretical framework provided by Conversation Analysis and Interactional Sociolinguistics, we seek to comprehend the relationship between different types of repetition and two qualitative traits which can permeate verbal interactions: collaboration and conflict.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

Cette thèse porte sur la co-construction de la signification en interaction et les manifestations des processus interprétatifs des participants. En s’intéressant au processus d’explicitation, c’est-à-dire le processus par lequel un contenu informationnel devient explicite dans la conversation, elle propose une étude pluridimensionnelle de la séquence conversationnelle en jeu dans ce processus. La co-construction de la signification est ici abordée comme relevant d’une transformation informationnelle et de l’inférence.Nos analyses ont porté sur un corpus de français parlé en interaction, en contexte de repas et apéritifs entre amis. A partir d’une collection de séquences d’explicitation, définies comme des configurations dans lesquelles une inférence estsoumise à validation, ce travail propose une analyse multidimensionnelle, portant un double regard sur les données : celui de l’analyse conversationnelle et celui d’une modélisation de la pratique d’explicitation. Ainsi, nous proposons de parcourir cettepratique selon trois axes d’analyse : (a) une analyse séquentielle, s’intéressant au déploiement de la séquence d’explicitation et des éléments la composant, (b) une analyse reposant sur une modélisation de la gestion informationnelle dans cetteséquence, et (c) une analyse des formats linguistiques employés pour l’exhibition du processus inférentiel. Un des enjeux de ce travail l’élaboration d’un modèle conversationnaliste pour la gestion informationnelle et son application à l’analyse desdonnées de langue parlée en interaction. / This dissertation deals with the co-construction of meaning in interaction and the ways in which conversationalists exhibit their interpretative processes. The focus of this study is the process of explicitation, i.e. the process through which an informational content becomes explicit in conversation. By offering a multi-level analysis of conversational sequences engaged in this practice, the study approaches the co-construction of meaning from the point of view of informational transformation and inference.The analyses presented here have been conducted on a corpus of spoken French in interaction, within the setting of informal encounters between friends around a meal or a drink. The explicitation sequence is defined as a conversational pattern where an inference is being submitted for confirmation. Starting from a collection of these sequences, this study offers a twofold approach: that of conversation analysis, and that of modeling of the conversational sequence. The practice of making a content explicit is here being explored according to three analytical lines: (a) the sequential analysis, focusing on the deployment of the explicitation sequence and its components; (b) the analysis according to a device elaborated by means of modeling information management in these sequences; and (c) the analysis of the linguistic designs used when exhibiting the inference. One of themain challenges of the present study is that of a proposition of a conversationalist model, dealing with information management and its enforcement through analysis of talk in interaction.