This study investigates the everyday practices of young children acting in their social worlds within the context of the school playground. It employs an ethnographic ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis. In the context of child participation rights advanced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and childhood studies, the study considers children’s social worlds and their participation agendas. The participants of the study were a group of young children in a preparatory year setting in a Queensland school. These children, aged 4 to 6 years, were videorecorded as they participated in their day-to-day activities in the classroom and in the playground. Data collection took place over a period of three months, with a total of 26 hours of video data. Episodes of the video-recordings were shown to small groups of children and to the teacher to stimulate conversations about what they saw on the video. The conversations were audio-recorded. This method acknowledged the child’s standpoint and positioned children as active participants in accounting for their relationships with others. These accounts are discussed as interactionally built comments on past joint experiences and provided a starting place for analysis of the video-recorded interaction. Four data chapters are presented in this thesis. Each data chapter investigates a different topic of interaction. The topics include how children use “telling” as a tactical tool in the management of interactional trouble, how children use their “ideas” as possessables to gain ownership of a game and the interactional matters that follow, how children account for interactional matters and bid for ownership of “whose idea” for the game and finally, how a small group of girls orientated to a particular code of conduct when accounting for their actions in a pretend game of “school”. Four key themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme addresses two arenas of action operating in the social world of children, pretend and real: the “pretend”, as a player in a pretend game, and the “real”, as a classroom member. These two arenas are intertwined. Through inferences to explicit and implicit “codes of conduct”, moral obligations are invoked as children attempt to socially exclude one another, build alliances and enforce their own social positions. The second theme is the notion of shared history. This theme addresses the history that the children reconstructed, and acts as a thread that weaves through their interactions, with implications for present and future relationships. The third theme is around ownership. In a shared context, such as the playground, ownership is a highly contested issue. Children draw on resources such as rules, their ideas as possessables, and codes of behaviour as devices to construct particular social and moral orders around owners of the game. These themes have consequences for children’s participation in a social group. The fourth theme, methodological in nature, shows how the researcher was viewed as an outsider and novice and was used as a resource by the children. This theme is used to inform adult-child relationships. The study was situated within an interest in participation rights for children and perspectives of children as competent beings. Asking children to account for their participation in playground activities situates children as analysers of their own social worlds and offers adults further information for understanding how children themselves construct their social interactions. While reporting on the experiences of one group of children, this study opens up theoretical questions about children’s social orders and these influences on their everyday practices. This thesis uncovers how children both participate in, and shape, their everyday social worlds through talk and interaction. It investigates the consequences that taken-for-granted activities of “playing the game” have for their social participation in the wider culture of the classroom. Consideration of this significance may assist adults to better understand and appreciate the social worlds of young children in the school playground.

Argumentation in interaction: The sequential structure of accounts in television debates Abstract This dissertation concentrates on the sequential structure of argumentation in spoken interaction. The point of departure is the concept of argumentation as linguistic action based on accounting for a controversial position with the purpose of convincing listeners of its acceptability or in order to defend it when it is challenged. The dissertation's specific aim is to describe the interactional context of argumentation using material from TV debates. The study utilizes ethnomethodological conversation analysis combined with elements of argumentation theory. The objects of empirical analysis are the types of linguistic action in argumentation interaction (e.g. the call for argumentation or the challenge to a position or argument) and the means of signaling argumentation. The research focuses on the analysis of the sequential organization of the TV debate, including the system of turn-taking, and on describing the sequential contexts of the argumentation in this genre. Attention is devoted to so-called argumentative sequences, i.e. series of mutual argumentative responses (problematizations) by the debate participants. Also examined are other types of linguistic action which initiate argumentation by...

Following recently increased interest in research on gender, the thesis seeks to supplement current research by investigating language and gender. Specifically, it explores the influence of gender on the use of vague expressions within the formal context of departmental meetings. Respondents' TM perceptions of vague language use in the form of responses to a questionnaire were also collected and analysed. The study revealed gender differences as regards vague language use. Women used more vague expressions than their male colleagues. Males and females displayed preferences for certain vague expressions an indication of gender construction. For instance, the men used more vague additives, whereas the females made use of more hedges in their utterances. An attempt is made to explain these preferences in terms of the difference and dominance theories. It was also found that the generally formal context of meetings operated informally within these academic contexts. The explanations for the informality found in academic meetings are related to the degree of distance in relationships, and the frequency of interaction among colleagues. Responses to the questionnaire revealed differences in vague language use as regards male and females on certain items. This revealed a probable indication of gender construction. For instance, whereas the males were more sensitive to context in terms of vague language use, the females were less sensitive to the contextual use of vague language. The difference in male and female sensitivity to context is explained within a constant and fixed female adherence to informality. Politeness, however, did not emerge as a prominent feature, as neither males nor females in this group considered politeness as a major function of vague language use. While the investigation was held within the context of academic meetings, these gender attributes, preferences and or differences may be operating in other contexts. The research therefore serves as a point of departure for further studies on gender and vague language use. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Sociolinguistics)

The purpose of the research is to explore social workers' listening skills pertaining to listening as communication skill during an experimental social work interview. The research methodology comprised unique application of a social work interview. A sample of five participating social workers was invited to listen to a video recording of a social work interview requesting them to identify information presented by the client through observation and listening by applying a set of predetermined theoretical conversation elements. The participation and involvement of participating social workers during the listening experiment was video recorded for subsequent evaluation. The conclusion reached from research findings indicates that the unique approach adopted by participating social workers' achieved mixed results towards hypothetic assistance offered to the experimental client. The researcher recommends that social workers be developed and trained in the art of maintaining effective listening skills during social work interviews to improve assistance to clients. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Work)

The media dialogical networks in the communist Czechoslovakia Abstract The concept of the media dialogical networks (DN) is one of the ways to analyse mass media communication; its theoretical background is M. M. Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and H. Sacks' ethnometodological conversation analysis. The concept of DN had been developed using data collected in the 1990s in the UK and the Czech Republic while in this thesis it is applied to data originating in a different context, namely in former Czechoslovakia in 1952, 1967 and 1972. The main data source was the national daily Rudé právo [Red Justice]. The difference of the context lies both in the time distance of the target period, as well as in the then dominant tone of massmedia content. As for the aspect of time, there is a longer gap between the examined period and the present, which is also connected to a different state of development of technologies used in journalistic practice. And then, there is the fact that in the examined period the contents of mass media production were adapted to the ideological requirements of the ruling political party. The analysis deals mainly with the construction of the DN, the categorization work of actors of the DN and with the way new actors of the DN are selected. For this reason, the methods of sequential and...

For a long time, the research of communication strategies has played an important role in the study of second language acquisition. They are a criterion for the evaluation of the oral presentation and interaction in the Swedish curriculum of modern languages. Unfortunately, there are only few examples of communication strategies in the curriculum and teachers may ask themselves how different types of communication strategies can be distinguished and categorized. This study showcases how communication strategies used by 9th graders in group discussions can be identified and categorized based on a taxonomy of strategies and how this may contribute to evaluating the use of communication strategies. The research method used in this study is based on qualitative deductive content analysis. Results show, that communication strategies can be assigned uniquely to two major types of strategies, namely avoidance and resource expansion strategies. However, the assignment of communication strategies to different sub-categories proved to be more problematic. Furthermore, it could be determined that knowledge about the two major types of strategies contributes to the evaluation of communication strategies in oral presentation and interaction.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Physicians were interviewed and asked about their perspectives on communicating with patients, media, and the ways in which the biomedical and biopsychosocial models function in the practice of medicine. Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm was the primary critical method applied to themes that emerged from the interviews. Those emergent themes included the importance of a team approach to patient care; perspectives on physicians as bad communicators; and successful communication strategies when talking to patients. Physicians rely on nurses and other support staff, but the most important partnership is that between the physician and patient. Narrative fidelity and probability are satisfied by strategies physicians use in communicating with patients: using understandable language when talking to patients; engaging in nonverbal tactics of sitting down with patients, making eye contact with patients, and making appropriate physical contact with them in the form of a handshake or a light touch on the arm. Physicians are frustrated by media’s reporting of preliminary study results that omit details as well as media’s fostering of expectations for quick diagnostic processes and magical cures within the public. Furthermore, physicians see the biomedical and biopsychosocial models becoming increasingly interdependent in the practice of medicine, which carries the story of contemporary medicine further into the realm of partnership, revealing its humanity as well as its fading paternalism.

Studien ”Kvinnor kan också prata hockey” ämnar undersöka C Mores expertstudio för hockeysändningar. Syftet är att undersöka hur maktbalansen ser ut i två studiosamtal utifrån samtalsstrukturen. Materialet som analyseras i studien är två samtal tagna från C More Hockey som sänder den svenska hockeyligan [SHL] under hösten 2021. Teorierna som vi har använt oss av i studien är makt, samtalsanalys och genus. Allt material har transkriberats och för att kunna avläsa innehållet har vi använt oss av metoden samtalsanalys. Vidare kommer vårt analysschema hjälpa oss att identifiera studiosamtalens samtalsstruktur, vilka maktstrategier som används av deltagarna och ifall det finns några skillnader baserat på köns olika samtalsstilar.    Resultatet av analysen visade att samtalen i expertstudion på C More följer en speciell struktur. De samtalsstarstrategier som användes för att ta makt var: turindelningar, samtalstid, uppbackning, avbrott och argumentation. Genom ämneskontroll behöll både den manliga och kvinnliga samtalsledaren makten genom att styra samtalet på ett intelligent sätt. Samtalsstilen följde i de båda samtalen de typiska dragen utefter samtalsledarens normativa kön. Anmärkningsvärt var att det visade sig i slutsatsen att de kulturella och sociala föreställningarna om det normativa könet utmanades i samtal 1 med en kvinnlig samtalsledare och att de upprätthölls i samtal 2 med en manlig samtalsledare. / The study ”Women can also talk hockey” aims to examine C Mores expert studio for ice hockey. The purpose is to investigate what the balance of power looks like in two studio conversations based on the structure of talk. The material analyzed in this essay is two conversations taken from C More Hockey, which broadcasts the Swedish hockey league [SHL] during autumn of 2021. The theories that we use in this essay is power, conversation analysis and gender. All material has been transcribed and to be able to understand the content, we have used the method of conversation analysis. Our analysis scheme will help us identify the structure of the studio conversations, which power strategies are used by the participants and if we can distinguish any differences based on genders´ conversational styles.     The results of the analysis showed that the conversations in the expert studio at C More follow a special structure. The conversation strategies used to seize power were turn divisions, talking time, agreements, interruptions and argumentation. Through subject control, both the male and female conversation leaders retained power by controlling the conversation in an intelligent way. In both conversations, the conversation style followed the typical features along the conversation leader's normative gender. It was remarkable that it turned out in the conclusion that the cultural and social notions of the normative gender were challenged in conversation 1 with a female conversation leader and that they are maintained in conversation 2 with a male conversation leader.

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Die Dissertation zeigt, dass die Prinzipien kohärenter Kommunikation auf psycholinguistisch begründete Prinzipien der Textproduktion zurückzuführen sind. Die gemeinsame Basis von Text- und Dialogproduktion ist die Quaestio, die als leitende Frage Vorgaben für den Aufbau eines Textes, aber auch einer einzelnen Äußerung macht. Im Text sichert die Quaestio Kohärenz, indem die Textbausteine auf der konzeptuellen Ebene – und nicht allein durch lexikalische oder grammatische Mittel – verknüpft werden. Das bedeutet, dass Kohärenzherstellung eine kognitive Leistung ist, die nicht allein rezeptiv zu erbringen ist, sondern auch bei der Sprachproduktion die Beachtung von Planungsvorgaben verlangt. Zunächst werden die Begriffe Kohärenz und Kohäsion und verschiedene Ansätze zu ihrer Beschreibung diskutiert. Außerdem werden Methoden der Dialoganalyse einander gegenüber gestellt. In dieser Diskussion werden unter anderem Rhetorical Structure Theory und Centering-Theorie behandelt. Da die Arbeit eher strukturelle mit qualitativen Analysen verbindet, werden methodische Zugänge zur Dialoganalyse wie die Konversationsanalyse, aber auch Clark’s sozialpsychologischer Ansatz der joint actions und joint activities sowie Pickering’s und Garrod’s alignment-Theorie aufgegriffen. Letztlich wird auf das Quaestio-Modell von Stutterheim zurückgegriffen, da es aus psycholinguistischer Perspektive den weitesten Erklärungsrahmen bietet. Der Hauptteil der Dissertation ist der Modell-Entwicklung anhand authentischer Gesprächsdaten gewidmet. Schließlich werden Prinzipien der Quaestio-Bearbeitung im Dialog entwickelt. Da unterschiedliche Gesprächssituationen untersucht werden, liefert diese Arbeit ein Inventar an Kohärenzprinzipien samt ihrer charakteristischen Merkmale, das nicht nur die Analyse beliebiger weiterer Gespräche erlaubt, sondern beispielsweise auch zur Entwicklung von Kommunikationsroutinen eingesetzt werden kann. So werden Anwendungsperspektiven psycholinguistischer Forschung erkennbar. / This doctoral thesis shows in how far principles of coherent communication can be traced back to psycholinguistically founded principles of text production. The so-called quaestio forms the common basis of text and dialogue production. As an implicit underlying question it sets preferences for the structure of a whole text as well as a single utterance. The quaestio ensures coherence of texts on a conceptual basis rather than merely through the use of lexical or grammatical means. Thus, the production of coherence can be seen as cognitive achievement not only by listeners, but also by speakers who have to follow planning constraints. The thesis discusses the terms coherence and cohesion as well as descriptive approaches dealing with these terms. Additionally, methods of dialogue analysis are confronted with each other. This discussion treats for example Rhetorical Structure Theory and Centering-Theory. The thesis discusses diverse methodological approaches, because it combines structural with qualitative analyses. Thus approaches such as Conversation Analysis, Clark’s concept of joint actions and joint activities, but also Pickering’s and Garrod’s alignment-theory are being treated. In the end the quaestio approach by Stutterheim is chosen, because it offers the widest explanatory framework from a psycholinguistic point of view. The main part of the thesis is dedicated to detailed analyses of real-life dialogue. In conclusion, principles of quaestio management in dialogues are proposed. Because the study treats a wide variety of interaction settings, it delivers a set of principles of coherence and their typical features that allows not only for analyses of any other set of dialogues, but may also support the development of communication routines. Therefore, this thesis hints on application scenarios of psycholinguistic research.