Although social psychologists have made important strides towards understanding the effects of stigma on both individuals’ behaviours and their relationships with non-stigmatized groups, language patterns within this domain have largely been ignored. This thesis aims to address this gap by investigating the role that language patterns play in shaping the relationship between native and non-native speakers against the backdrop of an increasingly relevant context in which communicators with diverse language backgrounds interact: Immigration. Drawing on both communication accommodation theory (CAT) and intergroup contact theory, I investigate the processes by which language styles influence perceptions of both individuals and the groups they represent, as well as attempt to determine how language-based categorizations affect those whose language style deviates from majority group norms. Across six studies, I take the perspective of native speakers and demonstrate that perceptions of communicators based on their language are not uniform but are determined by factors including the style of language used and the speaker’s background. I then take the perspective of non-native speakers and, across two studies, show that negative perceptions of non-native accents can result in poorer interactions with the native speaking out-group as well as a reduced ability to comprehend and communicate in the host country’s language. In sum, the eight studies presented in this thesis demonstrate that perceptions related to one’s style of language can be detrimental to the relationship between native and non-native speakers and by extension host country natives and immigrants. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The aim of this project was to examine which factors are important in influencing communication between health professionals and patients. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was the theoretical framework adopted in this project. CAT proposes that individuals are influenced by their personal and social identities and that, in many cases, it is an individual's group or social identity that is most salient in an interaction. The underlying theoretical assumption in this project was that communication between health professionals and patients is characterised by intergroup rather than interpersonal salience and convergent methodologies were used to test this proposition. In addition to CAT, the linguistic category model (LCM), which is also used to investigate individuals' perceptions of intergroup salience, was adopted to complement the findings derived from CAT. There were seven studies in this project. The first study described the methodology for obtaining the data set used in Part 1 of the thesis. Participants wrote retrospective descriptions of a satisfactory and unsatisfactory conversation with a hospital staff member which they had experienced as a hospital in-patient. Study 1 provided a profile of the participants. In Study 2 the stimuli were participants' written recollections of 69 unsatisfactory and 79 satisfactory conversations. The LCM was used to test for differences in participants' perceptions of differing levels of intergroup salience between the two types of descriptions. While intergroup bias was evident, the results were complex. In Study 3 a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the same data set was conducted. This study explored differences between patients' and health professionals' goals, sociolinguistic strategies, and the patients' descriptions of the health professionals across the two types of conversational descriptions. Results revealed differences in goals, strategies, and descriptions. In the descriptions of satisfactory conversations, participants reported goals concerning reassurance and developing relationships. These two goals were not evident in the descriptions of unsatisfactory conversations, where attending to role relations was of greater importance. Participants reported the use of different sociolinguistic strategies for themselves and for health professionals across the different conversation types, which indicated that, for reports of satisfactory conversations, participants viewed their interactions with health professionals as more personal and positive than in the unsatisfactory ones. Participants described the health professionals in their descriptions of satisfactory conversations in more undifferentiated terms than the health professionals in the descriptions of unsatisfactory ones. Study 4 comprised two parts. First, using the data set from Studies 2 and 3, a qualitative analysis was conducted which explored thematic differences between the descriptions of satisfactory and unsatisfactory conversations. This analysis indicated more interpersonal themes for the satisfactory interactions and more negative intergroup themes for the unsatisfactory ones. Second, 134 participants rated 16 exemplar descriptions from the data set on 13 items derived from CAT. In general, the exemplars of satisfactory descriptions were rated as containing accommodative use of discourse management, emotional expression, and interpersonal control strategies. Exemplars of the unsatisfactory interactions were rated as more overaccommodative or counteraccommodative on these strategies. Study 5 introduced Part 2 of the thesis and involved a second data set. The stimuli were real-time videotaped interactions between health professionals and patients. Participants rated 25 videotaped interactions on 28 questions developed to tap the intergroup and interpersonal salience of the interaction. Of these 25 interactions, participants rated seven as highly intergroup and seven as highly interpersonal. These 14 interactions formed the stimuli for the Study 6. In Study 6 an LCM analysis of these 14 videotaped interactions compared the intergroup with the interpersonally rated interactions for levels of intergroup bias. The interpersonally salient interactions suggested lower intergroup bias than did the intergroup ones. This and other findings from the LCM analysis are discussed. Study 7 used a CAT perspective to examine six of the 14 videotaped interactions used in Study 6. These six interactions represented three videotaped interactions that were rated as highly intergroup, and three that were rated as highly interpersonal.. Participants provided ratings on both interactants' strategies, and health professionals' goals. They also rated the interactions for outcome measures, including patient satisfaction, and effective communication. Results indicated that the interactions rated as interpersonally salient were perceived as attending to relationship needs and emotional needs. Generally the interpersonal interactions were also rated as providing a more satisfactory outcome than the intergroup interactions. Together the seven studies provide evidence that interactions between health professionals and patients are essentially intergroup interactions. However, such interactions have the potential to move through dimensions of high intergroup and high interpersonal to dimensions of low intergroup and low interpersonal. Each pair of combinations provides different outcomes of communication effectiveness and satisfaction for the patient. Further, this research project demonstrates the ability of CAT to pick up on the dynamics of health provider and patient communication. It also highlights the usefulness of convergent methodologies to understand the complexities of patient and health professional interactions.

Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Lauri M. Baker / Peter J. Tomlinson / The purpose of this study was to determine specific communication accommodations used by county agricultural and natural resource agents/educators when discussing complex, scientific topics like climate change. Four research objectives were used to determine 1) background and experience of agents/educators, 2) how agents/educators are communicating on complex, scientific topics, 3) climate-change information received and preferred method of receiving future training, and 4) agents’/educators’ communication adjustment. This study was guided by Communication Accommodation Theory to understand how agents/educators are adjusting their communication when speaking to producers with varying education levels, grammar usage, and seeking different types of climate information. This study utilized a mixed method, quantitative and qualitative, survey (n = 42). Extension in Kansas and Oklahoma had not publicized an organizational stance on climate change. Kansas agents and Oklahoma educators had access to climate-change information through a variety of internal and external sources. Agents/educators had a strong background in agriculture and varying ranges of experience in the position. The main communication channel producers utilized to contact agents/educators was the telephone (52.24%). Both states indicated they are conducting an average of five on-farm visits a month. Over half (25) of agents/educators indicated they had received some form of climate-change information since becoming an agent/educator. Agents/educators indicated they received this information from sources external to Extension in Kansas and Oklahoma. They also indicated future training should be interactive and close to home. This study found agents/educators are accommodating in their responses to agricultural producers’ requests for climate-change information, but also showed nonaccommodating tendencies. Agents/educators were viewed as nonaccommodating when they used improper grammar, improper email format, or told the producer there was no need for concern on their perceived climate issue. Agents/educators offered to make site visits to the producers’ field, referred to specialists, and worked to establish credibility. This study determined agents/educators have the background and information sources to adequately and effectively answer producers’ questions about climate change. It was determined the reason agents/educators do not want climate-change conversations is because of a lack of formal training on the matter, and they do not feel comfortable. This study recommends Extension provide communication and climate-change training for agents/educators. It also recommends agents/educators continue to conduct on-farm visits as they are vital to interpersonal communication with agricultural producers. Extension should take steps to reach a younger audience and help young people become involved in agriculture.

As increasing number of organizations are using virtual teams, communication scholars have started to pay more attention to these relatively new forms of work. Past studies explored interpersonal (i.e., trust, attraction) and group dynamics (i.e., conformity, subgrouping) in virtual teams. Despite the documented effects of interpersonal behaviors and social categories on virtual group dynamics, there is a substantial gap in how these two factors influence language use in virtual teams. To shed light on this neglected area of research, this dissertation examined how teammates’ interpersonal behaviors and social categories affected language use in virtual team collaborations. 164 participants interacted in four-person teams using a synchronous chat program. The age of participants ranged from 18 to 24. 58% of participants were female and 42% were male. Participants used Windows Live Messenger to complete Straus & McGrath’s (1994) decision making task. Upon completing the task, participants filled out social attraction and social identification scales to be used for manipulation checks. Decision making sessions for each group were saved and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program (LIWC) was used to examine language use. Linguistic style accommodation was measured using language style matching (LSM) metric. LSM measured the degree to which group members used similar language patterns. It was calculated by averaging the absolute difference scores for nine function word categories generated by LIWC. Similarly, linguistic markers such as word counts, negations, assents, and pronouns were acquired through LIWC output. The results suggested that having a dissenting member in the group was associated with higher linguistic style accommodation compared to having an assenting member. This result contradicted with the assumptions of communication accommodation theory (Giles, Mulac, Bradac, & Johnson, 1987), yet provided evidence for the validity of minority influence theory (Moscovici, Lage, & Naffrechoux, 1969) in virtual teams. Unexpectedly, there was no significant effect of social categories on linguistic style accommodation. The results also showed that negative behaviors were strongly associated with increased word counts, negations and the second person singular pronouns, whereas positive behaviors were associated with increased use of assents, tentative language, first person plural and singular pronouns. / text

This dissertation examined the relationship between language diversity and the implementation of on-the-job training programs. Using India as the empirical context, I conducted a multi-case study research, which involved semi-structured interviews and direct observations in the headquarters of two Indian multinational enterprises. Drawing from social identity theory, I first examined the factors that influence the emergence and transformation of two types of language -based clusters, coping clusters and clusters of convenience. The two types of clusters display distinct mechanisms related to arousal, ingroup favoritism and outgroup bias, which questions one of the key assumptions of social identity theory related to the role of affect. Additionally, I found that language diversity can create cognitive discomfort for training recipients, and emotional anxiety for both training facilitators and recipients. However, training recipients, training facilitators, and the executive management, (i.e., the firm) can utilize certain language accommodation approaches that can reduce the emotional and cognitive discomfort experienced by employees. Using communication accommodation theory, I discuss that the influence of each language accommodation approach depends on its source and time of implementation. As well, language -based clusters can facilitate the exchange of interpersonal information during on-the-job training programs. The emergent findings also suggest that linguistic identity seldom operates in isolation. It often intersects with other dimensions of social identity, specifically, the status differentials attached to gender, education and regional dialects. The findings have implications for research on language diversity and language management in international business, social identity theory and communication accommodation theory. / Graduate / 2022-08-22

In this research, Communicative Accommodation Theory (CAT) is investigated while native speakers address nonnative peers. For the intentions of this research, three native speakers of Canadian English were asked to have conversations with native and nonnative peers. The conversations were in the form of giving directions on the map. Later on, the participants’ formants and vowel durations were measured and used for comparing native-nonnative peer effect(s) on the speakers’ vowel formants and duration. Based on the analyses, it is suggested that accommodation may take place based on providing stereotypical vowel durations and formants, as well as reducing inter-token variations in the nonnative peer context.

In this research, Communicative Accommodation Theory (CAT) is investigated while native speakers address nonnative peers. For the intentions of this research, three native speakers of Canadian English were asked to have conversations with native and nonnative peers. The conversations were in the form of giving directions on the map. Later on, the participants’ formants and vowel durations were measured and used for comparing native-nonnative peer effect(s) on the speakers’ vowel formants and duration. Based on the analyses, it is suggested that accommodation may take place based on providing stereotypical vowel durations and formants, as well as reducing inter-token variations in the nonnative peer context.

The linguistic landscape of Canadian workplaces is becoming more diverse as organizations employ individuals who come from various countries and speak different native languages. As language is an important marker of identity and group membership, language-based identities are powerful in shaping workplace experiences. Guided by both the ethnolinguistic identity theory (ELIT: Giles et al., 1977; Giles & Johnson, 1987) and communication accommodation theory (CAT: e.g., Dragojevic et al., 2016; Gallois et al., 2005; Giles & Ogay, 2006), this study explores the experiences of Spanish-speaking Latin Americans working in the Canadian National Capital Region in relation to their linguistic identities, coping strategies, and intergroup interactions. A thematic analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews shows that participants experience a dynamic shift in their identity in which they move between feelings of self-doubt and a sense of confidence and comfort in their workplaces. This shift occurs as they navigate the cognitive and emotional experiences of working in a nonnative language. Factors that influence this identity shift include social comparisons, positive implications associated with their native linguistic identity, negative evaluations, and empathy in the workplace. This study also provides a detailed description of the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and interactional coping strategies that participants enact to navigate their workplaces. In terms of intergroup interactions, the participant’s experiences, their evaluations, and reactions to accommodative or nonaccommodative behaviours from native speaking peers in their workplaces are explored. The final pages of this study include some recommendations for human resource practitioners.

本研究主要係延伸過去記者與消息來源互動關係模式，將老人研究中的「施惠語言」概念納入，探究記者在與年長消息來源互動時是否使用「施惠語言」，其主要形式為何？運用目的為何？與此種語言形式有關的「個人變項」及「情境變項」又是為何？ 本研究以四個新聞訪問個案進行分析，個案之選擇兼顧記者性別與年齡差異，並以語域分析法分析「施惠語言」形式，其後輔以深度訪談法探究記者對消息來源的外表生理特質刻板印象、對彼此互動關係及互動目標等情境認知，以進一步分析記者的個人變項及情境感知變項與「施惠語言」之關聯性。 資料分析結果顯示，「施惠語言」是新聞訪問中常見的語言形式，包括「娃娃腔式談話」、「屈就或過份私密談話」、「命令或直接談話」及「膚淺或無關痛癢談話」等四類「施惠語言」主要形式均可在新聞訪問中出現，其中又以「屈就或過份私密談話」最被普遍運用。此外，記者的個人變項與新聞訪問的情境感知變項均會影響記者的「施惠語言」運用形式，亦即記者依據情境變化不斷調整語言形式以適應消息來源，使得一段新聞訪問中可能同時出現多種「施惠語言」形式。

Approximately 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses that shared different racial or ethnic backgrounds from one another. Socha and Diggs (1999) began to examine race as both an outcome of family communication as well as a factor that influences children's communication development in families because of the social pressure multiethnic families endure to fit a nuclear family model. This study utilized dyadic interviews of eleven multiethnic parent couples (N = 22 individuals; 11 dyads) in order to gain a deeper understanding of Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. Communication in families plays a foundational role in many aspects of society and socialization of the young. However, slim research has addressed how communication in families affects the understandings of ethnicity and the formation of social identities as a social construction (see Hecht, Collier, & Ribeau, 1993; Socha & Diggs, 1999; Socha, Sanchez-Hucles, Bromley, & Kelly, 1995). Researchers in the social sciences, especially in communication, must recognize that the sanctuary of the home may be generating the keys to understanding problems concerning social identity formation and diversity. Thus, there is a need for communication research at the crossroads of ethnicity, family, and identity. This dissertation highlights family factors that may influence Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic children’s social identities as well as family communication within Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. This study explicates multiethnic families through the lens of communication accommodation theory (CAT; Giles, 1973), social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and self-categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985; Turner, 1987), explicitly overviewing the intersection of interpersonal and intergroup communication (Giles, 2012). This study provides insights to both theoretical expansion and practical application within Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems. Ultimately, this study addresses questions such as: a) How do Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems communicate surrounding topics of race and ethnicity, b) How do Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic families discuss components of social identity (e.g., ethnic identification for multiethnic children), and c) What challenges are unique to Hispanic-Caucasian multiethnic family systems?