published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Syftet med följande studie var att beskriva interaktionella mönster i en familj med två barn som stammar. Familjen filmades sju gånger under måltidssituationer. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är en etnometodologisk syn på deltagares egna metoder och praktiker att organisera sina gemensamma sociala aktiviteter. Studien använder Conversation Analysis (CA) som analysmetod för att undersöka interaktionella mönster i familjen. Studien har undersökt barns samtalsturer med stamningssekvenser, samt hur personer i samtalssituationen responderar på dessa i olika samtalskontexter och med vilka praktiker. Praktikerna som har belysts är upprepning, ifyllnad och inväntan. Upprepningar tycks kunna ha till funktion att uppnå förståelse. Ifyllnad förekommer vid stamningssekvenser där informationen är tillräcklig för att göra en ifyllnad. Inväntan förekommer vid stamningssekvenser där informationen inte är tillräcklig för att fylla i eller föreslå en tolkning. Studien visar även på topikstrukturens påverkan på responspraktiker, närmare bestämt bristen på respons på stammade turer som utgörförsök till ämnesbyte.

This report presents the initaitvies made by teachers in form of questions during four lessons in a highschool class. A class in senior highschool was filmed during six hours with four different teachers. The number of questions and other initiatives were counted. The dialogue was transcribed with CA regarding examples from questioning and dialogue. The study examined how many closed(open and rhetorical questions the teacher initiate. The initiatives from pupils in form of questions where also examined. The aim was to see whether or not there were any gender differences. The result show that the teacher dominate the classroom dialogue with more than 68% of the speech acts and that the closed questions still dominate the classroom. There were no gender differences in the total amount of classroomtime, but in the math session the boys dominated. Regarding initiatives from pupils there were no gender differences, but there were many comments and answers who were spoken out loud in the classroom without any order. The conclusion from this report is that the old patterns with the tacher domination in the classroom communication remains and that there are very few open questions which could benfit dialogue and democatic values.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 105-107).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 494-503).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-89). Also available in print.

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

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Parental divorce is considered one of the most stressful events in the lives of children. The adult perspective has dominated the discourse on divorce, and only recently has research started to consider the viewpoint of children. Research indicates that the nature of the divorce process as experienced by the child is the most important factor in post-divorce adjustment. It also remains a relatively unexplored area, with research on the manner in which children experience the divorce process being limited. The current study aimed to conduct a narrative inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of parental divorce, of a purposive sample of 9 to 10 year old children. The primary aim of the study was to highlight and honour the voice of the child in a parental divorce process. The current research was qualitative in nature and adopted a narrative paradigm. Five children were interviewed qualitatively using an unstructured interview. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Seven themes were identified. The first theme explored children’s endeavours to describe and explain parental divorce. An additional six themes were developed around the types of stories children told of the divorce process. Themes included, What is a Divorcement, Stories of Loss, Stories of Gain, Stories of Change, Stories of Stability, Healing Stories, and Complicating Stories. This study endeavoured to provide divorced parents and those working with children a greater understanding of the way in which children perceive parental divorce, and insight into the factors that facilitate children’s positive adjustment to parental divorce.

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.