This study examined advice interactions following infidelity. Participants (N = 213) completed a survey concerning an instance on infidelity and a subsequent advice interaction. Injured party perceptions of advice interactions were measured by examining advice messages, perceived face threat, and perceived face support, in addition to perceived effectiveness of the advice message. Results from this study showed no significant differences in perceived face threat, perceived face support, or advice effectiveness between different advice messages. Results also indicated both positive and negative face threat as negative predictors of advice effectiveness. While negative face support was a positive predictor of advice effectiveness, positive face support was a negative predictor. When controlling for relational closeness, negative face support was the only significant predictor of advice effectiveness.

The purpose of this dissertation is to improve the racial conditions of USAmerican education and to highlight how racial politics influence the facework practices of Black male teachers, their perceptions of and responses to face threats, and how the classroom, as a context, shapes perceptions and issues of face, facework, and face threat. I utilized identity management theory to examine how Black male teachers construct facework and face threat within the classroom. Additionally, I used semi-structured respondent interviewing and grounded theory as my method and analytical method (respectively) to complete my study. Using key concepts, such as positive face, negative face, face threat, and identity freezing, I concluded that perceptions of racism and racial stereotypes that are sometimes contingent on their gender identity impact how they constructed positive and negative face. Additionally, racism and racial stereotypes shaped which facework strategies the interview participants utilized, what they considered face threatening situations, how they responded to face threatening situations, and what they considered identity freezing situations. Overall, their constructions of facework and face threat were utilized to avoid stereotypes that depicted them as angry and incompetent. Considering the positive potential of this study, I concluded with how this research can help administrators and colleagues to improve the education system for Black male teachers.

Many years of communication research have shown that an increase in immediacy has been a major factor that affects students‘ perceptions of instructor credibility which in turn affects, both students‘ cognitive and affective learning, student state motivation and a variety of other positive outcomes. However, in order for immediacy to be effective, instructor and student must be in the same location at the same time. With the recent push toward on-line classes, what can we find to act like immediacy in a text based format? This research suggests that face threat mitigation can be used in a text-based environment, to achieve the pro-social goals of instructor credibility and student state motivation to the same extent as it does when coupled with immediacy. This study is a replication of a study done by Witt and Kerssen-Griep (2012). In the original study face threat mitigation (FTM) was coupled with instructor nonverbal immediacy (NVI) and they examined the impact these factors had on instructor credibility (i.e., competence, character, and caring) and student state motivation in a video simulated feedback situation. This study surveyed 218 undergraduate students in an introductory communication course. Students were randomly assigned to read hypothetical scenarios in which FTM was manipulated in a manner similar to Witt and Kerssen-Griep‘s study. They responded to three scales. The current study removed the instructor by using a simulated electronic feedback correspondence. Results of a MANCOVA and four separate ANOVAs were similar to those of the original findings. FTM was found to have a significant positive relationship with instructor credibility (i.e., competence, character, and caring) and student state motivation.

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This experimental study examined the effects of an instructor’s face threat mitigation tactics on student self-efficacy for learning and perceived emotional support from the instructor in a written feedback setting. Participants (N = 401) were randomly assigned to one of four feedback scenarios in which level of face threat mitigation and instructor age and status were manipulated. Student grade orientation and state feedback apprehension were measured prior to being exposed to the feedback scenario. Results indicate that high face threat mitigation is positively associated with student self-efficacy for learning and perceived emotional support from the instructor. Results also revealed that state feedback apprehension predicts self-efficacy for learning and perceived emotional support from the instructor. Grade orientation predicted self-efficacy for learning but did not significantly predict perceived emotional support from the instructor providing feedback. Finally, scenarios manipulated for instructor age and status did not significantly differ in self-efficacy for learning or perceived emotional support from the instructor. Implications regarding theory, the measurement of feedback apprehension, and student-instructor communication are discussed.

This thesis investigates the use of the pragmatic particles (PPs) 'enfin' and 'écoute' in French film dialogue, and their translations in British English subtitles. Using a corpus of nine films and eight episodes drawn from two television series – all released in the UK between 2005 and 2015, and equating to approximately twenty-two hours – the study identifies tokens across a much wider range of contexts than has previously been possible using traditional corpora. The main contribution is an analysis of PP functions. The results for 'enfin' show a different functional distribution of the particle to other corpora, with corrective 'enfin' occurring significantly less frequently. The relatively large number of tokens of performative and emotional (or affective) 'enfin' allows for an elaboration of these two categories, and a tendency is observed for 'enfin' to appear as an apparent disagreement mitigator in discussions between peers. With regard to 'écoute', it is argued that écoute1 functions as a face-threat mitigator in unequal relationships and écoute2 as an FTA, although the particle is multifunctional and some tokens exhibit characteristics of both categories. Attention is given to combinations of 'enfin' and 'écoute' with other particles: while there is a clear tendency for disagreement-mitigating 'enfin' to co-occur with 'mais', and for the precision and restrictive subcategories of the corrective to co-occur with 'je veux dire', other previously documented combinations ('enfin bon' and 'ben écoute') are not frequently occurring in the present corpus. The thesis also makes a significant contribution to the field of Audiovisual Translation (AVT). The English subtitles show high rates of omission for both particles consistent with previous research, with disagreement-mitigating 'enfin' particularly vulnerable to omission. However, the analysis reveals a surprising pattern regarding 'écoute': a clear division of labour between ‘look’ (used to translate more confrontational tokens) and ‘listen’ (more conciliatory and socially distant). The study includes an experimental analysis of the subtitles relative to their character limits, demonstrating a potential new approach for researchers wishing to investigate the impact of various subtitling constraints.