Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

This study reports the application and outcomes of Conversation Analysis (CA)-motivated interaction-focused therapy for a case series of eight couples managing the impact of aphasia on their conversations. It builds on previously reported interaction-focused therapy case studies (e.g. Lock, Wilkinson, & Bryan, 2001, Wilkinson, Bryan, Lock & Sage, 2010; Wilkinson, Lock, Bryan & Sage, 2011). Therapy was individualised for each couple, based on CA findings, but taking account of language, cognitive and self-reported disability assessments, and the couples' own observations during informal interviews. The participating couples were beyond the spontaneous recovery period for aphasia and presented with different types (e.g. Wernicke's, Broca's, Anomic) and severities of aphasia. Each couple video-recorded at least 80 minutes of baseline conversation at home, over eight recordings of ten minutes or more. Another eighty minutes were recorded immediately post-therapy, and again three months later. Results were evaluated by comparing pre- and post-therapy data, with the maintenance data used to evaluate whether changes were sustained three months after therapy ended. The findings indicated that four couples implemented behavioural changes following interaction-focused therapy. There was no systematic evidence of change in the other four couples' data. Reasons for successful and unsuccessful outcomes are hypothesised, including resistance to changing adaptations that mask aphasic difficulties, despite the loss of communicative effectiveness these adaptations may cause. Preliminary analysis of linguistic and cognitive assessment data has not revealed any patterns that can be related to response to therapy, but more work is warranted to further explore this data. New findings include two interaction-focused therapy targets: 1) eye gaze by people with aphasia to stall/mobilise help with repair from their partners, and 2) facilitating the person with aphasia to gain the floor more regularly by beginning a turn in the partner's turn space. Other new findings are the use of CA to assess aphasic comprehension impairments, the effectiveness of environments of possible occurrence (Schegloff, 1993) as a measure for evaluating success in interaction-focused therapy studies, and benign pedagogics. The study identified some areas for future research, including the development of an interview to elicit attitudes and beliefs about managing aphasia, as these seemed to influence response to therapy. Clinical applications have been suggested in terms of when this form of therapy may be relevant and for whom it might be expected to prove beneficial.

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When entrepreneurs interact and receive feedback they sort through and transform various subjective venture ideas into intersubjective venture concepts. This dissertation examines the dialogue of entrepreneurs in the nascent stages of opportunity development from a process theory approach to understand how entrepreneurs sort, navigate and make sense of ideas they encounter through feedback exchanges. Using conversational analysis, several conversation patterns are identified that shape the emergence process. Legitimacy associations, status quo assertions, experiential actualities, engagement hypotheticals, and deontic declarations contribute to the nonlinear opportunity emergence process. These discourse structures derived from speech acts are attended to, adopted, and implemented as they align with assessment filters of credibility, feasibility, desirability, and identity plausibility which are key elements of the opportunity interpretation process used during ideation and pivoting interactions. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation explores the very early stages of the entrepreneurship processes of ideation and opportunity development. Using speech acts theory and conversation analysis, I describe how entrepreneurs do things with words and how they navigate conversations with others about their idea. I identify different kinds of conversations that can be used to sort through confusing comments and flesh out ideas into venture concepts that make sense to the entrepreneur and those they get feedback from who help shape their ideas. I explain why entrepreneurs listen to some ideas and not others when trying to make sense of a possible pivot.

Yes / Alzheimer’s disease irrevocably challenges a person’s capacity to communicate with others. Earlier research on these challenges focused on the language disorders associated with the condition and situated language deficit solely in the limitations of a person’s cognitive and semantic impairments. This research falls short of gaining insight into the actual interactional experiences of a person with Alzheimer’s and their family. Drawing on a UK data set of 70 telephone calls recorded over a two-and-a-half year period (2006–2008) between one elderly woman affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and her daughter and son-in-law, this paper explores the role which communication (and its degeneration) plays in family relationships. Investigating these interactions, using a conversation analytic approach, reveals that there are clearly communicative difficulties, but closer inspection suggests that they arise due to the contingencies that are generated by the other’s contributions in the interaction. That being so, this paper marks a departure from the traditional focus on language level analysis and the assumption that deficits are intrinsic to the individual with Alzheimer’s, and instead focuses on the collaborative communicative challenges that arise in the interaction itself and which have a profound impact on people’s lives and relationships.

Yes / Ethnographic audio-visual research data recorded in a busy dementia care environment were initially considered to be ‘contaminated’ by unwanted noise. This included a variety of elements: ambient sound, mechanical noise, non-narrative vocalisation and narrative fragments from parallel conversation. Using the methodological lens of conversation analysis, we present an exploration of the striking temporal and sequential resonances between the narrative of one man with dementia and a group of care staff holding a separate conversation some distance away. We suggest that in this and similar settings, where random and intrusive sounds and conversation form a ubiquitous backdrop, the presence of such ‘noise’ can have a detectable influence on the content and direction of situated narratives. We argue that rather than attempting to filter out these apparently intrusive sounds from micro-interactional data, interference elements can usefully be incorporated into the analysis of interactions.

Utskrivningssamtalet är den sista kontakten mellan läkare och patient innan patienten åker hem ifrån avdelningen. Syftet med den föreliggande studien är att undersöka ifall det förligger kommunikativa utmaningar i ett utskrivningssamtal mellan en läkare och en patient med afasi.  Den konkreta frågeställningen för studien var hur de potentiella problem som uppkom i samtalet hanterades och vilket utrymme som skapades för patientens deltagande i samtalet samt hur samtalsdeltagarna använde sig av icke-verbal kommunikation för att uppnå förståelse. Den valda metoden för att undersöka detta var Conversation Analysis, CA. I studien deltog två läkare, två patienter med afasi, samt två närstående till patienterna. Patienterna som deltog hade mild till måttlig afasi, svenska som modersmål och var 50 år och 70 år gamla. Läkarna som deltog hade varit anställda på avdelningen och arbetat med patienter med afasi i 2.5 år respektive 3.5 år och hade svenska som andraspråk. Resultatet av analysen var en identifiering av kommunikativa handlingar som ledde till sekvenser i samtalet som deltagarna orienterade mot som problematiska. Dessa var bland annat när läkaren inte följde upp på patientens förfrågan för mer information eller patient-initierade ämnen och inte redde ut missförstånd som uppkom. I resultatet identifierades även sekvenser där samtalsdeltagarna använde sin kommunikativa kompetens för att hantera kommunikativa utmaningar, samt sekvenser där samtalsdeltagarna använde sig av icke-verbal kommunikation för att underlätta den gemensamma förståelsen. Resultatet stämde överens med tidigare forskning om hur patienter med afasi och vårdpersonal organiserar interaktion i samtal.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-55).

This thesis will explore how customers and bartenders accomplish the service encounter in a public house, or bar. Whilst there is a body of existing literature on service encounters, this mainly investigates customer satisfaction and ignores the mundane activities that comprise the service encounter itself. In an attempt to fill this gap, I will examine how the activities unfold sequentially by examining the spoken and embodied conduct of the participants, over the course of the encounter. The data comprise audio -and video- recorded, dyadic and multi-party interactions between customer(s) and bartender(s), occurring at the bar counter. The data were analyzed using conversation analysis (CA) to investigate the talk and embodied conduct of participants, as these unfold sequentially. The first analytic chapter investigates how interactions between customers and bartenders are opened. The analysis reveals practices for communicating availability to enter into a service encounter; with customers being found to do this primarily through embodied conduct, and bartenders primarily through spoken turns. The second analytic chapter investigates the role of objects in the ordering sequence. Specifically, the analysis reveals how the Cash Till and the seating tables in the bar are mobilized by participants to accomplish action. In the third analytic chapter, multi-party interactions are investigated, focusing on the organization of turn-taking when two or more customers interact with one or more bartenders. Here, customers are found to engage in activities where they align as a unit, with a lead speaker, who interacts with the bartender on behalf of the party. In the final analytic chapter, the payment sequence of the service encounter is explored to investigate at what sequential position in the interaction payment, as an action, is oriented to. Analysis reveals that a wallet, purse, or bag, may be displayed and money or a payment card retrieved, in a variety of sequential slots, with each contributing differentially to the efficiency of the interaction. I also find that payment may be prematurely proffered due to the preference for efficiency. Overall, the thesis makes innovative contributions to our understanding of customer and bartender practices for accomplishing core activities in what members come to recognize as a service encounter It also contributes substantially to basic conversation analytic research on openings , which has traditionally been founded on telephone interactions, as well as the action of requesting. I enhance our knowledge of face-to-face opening practices, by revealing that the canonical opening sequence (see Schegloff, 1968; 1979; 1986) is not present, at least in this context. From the findings, I also develop our understanding of how objects constrain, or further, progressivity in interaction; while arguing for the importance of analysing the participants semiotic field in aggregate with talk and embodied conduct. The thesis also contributes to existing literature on multi-party interactions, identifying a new turn-taking practice with a directional flow that works effectively to accomplish ordering. Finally, I contribute to knowledge on the provision of payment, an under-researched yet prominent action in the service encounter. This thesis will show the applicability of CA to service providers; by analysing the talk and embodied conduct in aggregate, effective practices for accomplishing a successful service encounter are revealed.

This thesis addresses the question of whether or not online interactional practices are systematically different from interaction in other contexts, particularly spoken interaction. I will establish how the organization of online interaction demonstrates participants orientations to the technological affordances of the online medium. The dataset for the study comprises one-to-one interaction between friends, conducted using the chat application of the social networking site, Facebook. Chat logs and screen capture data were used to analyze how participants engaged in, and managed, their unfolding interaction. The data were analyzed using conversation analysis (CA). CA was developed originally for the analysis of spoken talk, but in this dissertation it provides an empirical basis for comparing Facebook chat and spoken interaction. The thesis demonstrates how CA can be used for analyzing online interaction. The first analytic chapter provides an overview of how participants organize the generic orders of interaction. The findings suggest that participants draw on their knowledge of both spoken and written interaction when managing the particular interactional constraints and affordances of Facebook chat. The second analytic chapter focuses on chat openings, comparing them to openings in spoken interaction. The findings reveal some similarities, but also systematic differences which orient to the design of the chat software. The third analytic chapter examines topic management, including topic-initiation, topic change and the management of simultaneous topics. The findings suggest that the CA categorization of topic-initiating turns could potentially be extended by also analyzing action-orientation and also the epistemic stance displayed. The analysis also reveals remarkable similarities between topic change in spoken interaction and in Facebook chat. Finally in this chapter I show how organizational components of spoken interaction, such as adjacency pairs and tying techniques, are used to manage simultaneous topics. The final analytic chapter focuses on self-repair in Facebook chat. The analysis reveals that self-repairs completed during message construction orient to the same interactional contingencies as self-repairs in spoken interaction. However, the affordances of Facebook chat enable these repairs to be hidden from the recipient. Visible repairs tend to be corrections, with the affordances impacting the sequential placement of such repairs. Finally, I show how participants self-repair in response to the actions of their co-participant. Overall, the findings reveal a number of similarities between the organization of Facebook chat and spoken interaction. The analysis also reveals that participants attend to the technological affordances of Facebook in a variety of ways. Finally, this thesis demonstrates that, while there are differences between the interactional practices of spoken and online written interaction, CA can be used to analyze, and subsequently explain, such differences.