We find that children are limited in their influence in arranged song activities in preschool. The purpose with our study is to explore and analyze children’s early musical experiences and their pos-sibility to influence musical activities through musical conversations. Our theoretical perspectives to interpret and analyze data is by ladder of participation (Hart, 1997), reading circle (Chambers, 2011) and critical-constructive didactic (Klafki, 2005). Our method is a qualitative study by an in-tervention, an experiment, where participants are involved in an action that is tested. Our studies ambition is that through conversation and observation give children possibility to influence musical activities. The study shows that it is possible and important for the musical activities to enter chil-dren’s influence for the development and progression of the activities. Our conclusion is that musi-cal conversations is one way to give children influence in musical activities.

Denna uppsats undersöker förekomsten av kodväxling i svenska ungdomars vardagskonversationer. Uppsatsen använder sig av tre inspelade samtal mellan grupper avvänner i åldern 20–25. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka pragmatiska funktioner kodväxling har i ungdomars samtal. Samtalet spelades in och materialet transkriberades, för att sedan analyseras med hjälp av conversation analysis. Resultatet som uppsatsen kom fram till är att kodväxlingar är mer vanligt förekommande i mindre allvarliga samtalsämnen. De förekommer även som en lösning för att inte uppehålla konversationen när en talare glömt bort ett svenskt ord. Vidare förekommer kodväxlingar ofta i kluster. I uppsatsen analyserades även adverben low-key och basically, där slutsatsen är att de används då svenskan saknar liknande ord, och att de kan vara på väg att gå från kodväxling till låneord.

The present thesis examines how people manage difficult conversations in daily life through online surveys, live interaction studies, field studies, text analysis methods, topic models, and multilevel linear regression models. The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 establishes a process model of conversation avoidance, investigating people’s motivations, emotions, and behaviors when they are put into an unwanted conversation. I find that when people are concerned about their privacy, they are more likely to feel anxious and to stay quiet in the conversation. At the same time, when people are concerned about creating a conflict, they are more likely to feel angry and to leave the conversation. Chapter 2 evaluates the effectiveness of delaying conversations as an avoidance strategy. I find that although people prefer their partners to confess to them immediately after the events happened, people often delay their confessions. The waiting time is not associated with positive outcomes of the conversation or how their conversation partner reacts. Chapter 3 investigate a socio-ecological factor that predicts conversation avoidance and conversation seeking behaviors using the concept of relational mobility. I find that individuals with the ability to choose who they want to affiliate with are less concerned about their privacy or creating a conflict in a conversation. However, these individuals tend to have shallow conversations. Individuals with the ability to meet many new people tend to have deep conversations. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of how people handle difficult conversations in daily lives.

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This thesis is a careful examination of one small Platonic dialogue, the Euthydemus. In broad terms, it argues that the Euthydemus is concerned with what might be described as 'word games', with teaching both the need to know how to speak well and the worth of being able to do so. In more specific terms, it argues that the Euthydemus is comprised of three distinct levels, Socrates' conversation (primarily) with the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, his conversation with Crito, and Plato's conversation with the reader; levels, it is suggested, which cannot be fully understood unless Crito's role in each of them is first recognized. The first level, Socrates' conversation (primarily) with the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, is seemingly composed of three separate discussions, between Socrates and the brothers, between Socrates and Clinias, and between Socrates and Ctesippus. The first discussion is a general demonstration of knowing how to use words (or 'word games') and, further, of knowing how to use them well. The second discussion, in contradistinction to the first, centres on a coherent application of words to a specific goal; that being, to begin to demonstrate both that knowledge is the greatest good for individuals and, as well, that philosophy is nothing more than a 'perpetual ruthless questioning' . The third discussion reveals something about Ctesippus' nature. More importantly, it illustrates how words can be used to communicate with certain individuals and not others. The second level of the Buthydemus, Socrates' conversation with Crito, might accurately be described as an application of words to a specific goal writ large. The reason is that, here, Socrates tells Crito a 'story' (this being what was described above as the first level of the E:uthydemus) in order to discourage him from giving his sons a philosophic education. The third level, Plato's conversation with the reader (or Plato as distinguished from Socrates), raises the broader issue of the relation between the philosopher and the city. More precisely, it begins to reveal the effects that different methods of speaking have on an individual, on the opinions that others form as a result of his or her choice in this regard, and thus on the need for an individual to choose wisely. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Improving discourse is often targeted in aphasia treatment because it is an important skill for meaningful conversation and interaction. The aphasia literature offers a variety of methods to analyze and treat discourse impairments in aphasia, however, there is no true consensus on what the best method is for discourse analysis. Very few studies have utilized listener perception as a method to capture discourse-related changes in aphasia. However, many researchers in other areas of speech-language pathology (e.g. dysarthria, fluency) use listener perceptions and rating scales as a valid measure to assess connected speech. The overarching goal of this study is to determine whether people with aphasia (PWA) and naïve listeners perceive changes in discourse associated with conversational treatment. A questionnaire, the Discourse Rating Scale for Aphasia, was created based on three constructs of discourse analysis in aphasia: macrolinguistic, microlinguistic, and functional features. Six PWA and nine naïve listeners listened to 30-35 second speech samples obtained before and after conversational treatment and rated their judgments on the questionnaire. We examined the relationship between the ratings on the Discourse Rating Scale for Aphasia (DRSA) and standardized language tests to validate the items and rating scale. Additionally, we looked for descriptive pre and post differences within the data to determine whether the DRSA was sensitive to treatment. It was found that each item and total DRSA score correlated highly with standardized tests of language in aphasia. We did not find strong evidence for the DRSA’s sensitivity to treatment; however, we discuss the clinical implications of utilizing listener perception in the assessment of discourse in aphasia. / Communication Sciences