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El coneixement professional és epistemològicament diferent a d'altres tipus de coneixement; el coneixement professionalitzador ha de permetre als estudiants gestionar situacions de la seva pràctica professional. En aquest sentit, el coneixement professionalitzador implica unes demandes superiors en comparació a d'altres tipus de coneixement. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi doctoral és analitzar la naturalesa del coneixement professionalitzador i el canvi en el discurs professionalitzador en entorns l'aprenentatge en línia. Analitzar la naturalesa del discurs professionalitzador permet conèixer quins factors estan implicats en la construcció del coneixement professional i ajustar els entorns d'aprenentatge en línia. Aquesta tesi doctoral descriu els resultats de l'anàlisi de quatre casos relatius a la construcció del coneixement professionalitzador en el camp educatiu. Els resultats obtinguts ens mostren que el discurs professionalitzador construït amb mediació de les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TICs) està estructurat entorn una part molt petita dels tòpics de discurs professionalitzador (menys del 5%). També hem evidenciat diferencies rellevants evidenciades en funció del tipus d'activitat d'aprenentatge, el tipus de contingut i l'escenari de la tasca (tàcit o explícit). Pel que fa al canvi del discurs professionalitzador, els estudiants expressen tensions en la seva concepció de la pràctica i interaccionen com una comunitat de pràctica professional amb diferents característiques depenent del tipus d'activitat, el tipus de contingut i l'escenari de la tasca. / Professional knowledge is epistemologically different from other kinds of knowledge. Students are considered to have built academic discourse when they are able to produce speech based on concrete academic content whereas professional knowledge should enable students to manage situations in professional practice. In this sense, professional knowledge is more demanding than other kinds of knowledge. Our objective was to analyze the nature of professional knowledge and change in professional discourse in the framework of online learning environments. Analyzing the nature of professional discourse helps us understand the characteristics that make it special and that relate to managing situations in professional practice. Analyzing change in professional discourse enables us to know which factors are involved in building professional knowledge and to adjust online learning environments accordingly. This paper describes the results of an analysis of different cases related to the construction of professional knowledge in the educational field. The results we obtained show us that professional discourse built using ICT is structured by a very small fraction of identified topics of professional discourse (less than 5%), furthermore, relevant differences are evidenced depending on the type of learning activity, kind of content and task scenarios conducted (tacit or explicit). Regarding change in professional discourse, students expressed tensions in their conception of practice and interacted as a structured professional community although different characteristics depending on the type of activity, kind of content and task scenarios were observed in all cases.

Ce mémoire de thèse a pour objet d'enrichir le cadre conceptuel et méthodologique du Français Langue Professionnelle (FLP) en proposant un nouveau concept opératoire issu de la théorie des moments d'Henri Lefebvre: le moment professionnel. Nous formulons l'hypothèse que ce concept permet de mettre au jour les logiques qui traversent les pratiques et les discours professionnels et qu'il fournit un cadre qui permet de concevoir un enseignement de langue centré sur ces logiques. Cette thèse se déroule en trois parties qui vont déterminer les trois perspectives que ce concept de moment professionnel ouvre au niveau théorique, au niveau méthodologique et au niveau didactique. La première partie de ce mémoire de thèse pose notre cadre théorique. Nous y retraçons l'avènement du FLP puis nous définissons la théorie des moments. À la suite de quoi, nous explorons comment cette théorie des moments peut apporter de nouvelles perspectives à l'analyse des discours professionnels. La deuxième partie déploie notre cadre méthodologique. Pour ce faire, nous élaborons notre méthode d'enquête, de collecte et d'analyse des données, à la suite de quoi nous mettons à l'épreuve ce cadre méthodologique en l'expérimentant sur deux métiers qui nous ont paru s'opposer sur plusieurs critères : les aides médico-psychologiques, qui accompagnent les personnes dépendantes dans leur quotidien et les officiers supérieurs de l'armée française. Dans la troisième partie, qui pose le cadre didactique, nous avons élaboré un enseignement de FLP en phase avec la notion de moment professionnel. En nous appuyant sur une expérience d'enseignement à l'armée, nous avons montré que ce concept de moment professionnel permettait de renouveler l'enseignement des langues à des fins professionnelles grâce à un certain nombre d'outils didactiques et en focalisant l'apprentissage sur les postures professionnelles. / This thesis aims to enrich the conceptual and methodological framework of French as Professional Language (FPL) by introducing a new operative concept derived from Henri Lefebvre's theory of moments: the professional moment. Our hypothesis is that this concept allows to identify the logics of professional practices and discourses and provides a framework for language teaching focused on those logics. This thesis consists of three main parts who determine prospects resulting from the concept of professional moment on a theoretical, methodological and didactic level. The first part explains the theoretical framework, trace the history of French as a Professional Language and define the theory of moments. Then, it explores prospects of the theory of moments for the professional discourse analysis. The second part concerns our methodological framework and develop our method of investigation, data collection and analysis. Then, this method is applied to two professions that appear to be diametrically opposed: Medical/psychological Assistants who provide dependent people with day-to-day support and French Army senior officers. The third part describes the didactic framework and proposes to apply the concept of professional moment to the teaching of French as Professional Language. Our teaching experience in the army shows that the concept of professional moment allows to renew the teaching of languages for specific vocational purposes by providing some didactic tools and by focusing the learning on professional posture.

Ce mémoire de thèse a pour objet d'enrichir le cadre conceptuel et méthodologique du Français Langue Professionnelle (FLP) en proposant un nouveau concept opératoire issu de la théorie des moments d'Henri Lefebvre: le moment professionnel. Nous formulons l'hypothèse que ce concept permet de mettre au jour les logiques qui traversent les pratiques et les discours professionnels et qu'il fournit un cadre qui permet de concevoir un enseignement de langue centré sur ces logiques. Cette thèse se déroule en trois parties qui vont déterminer les trois perspectives que ce concept de moment professionnel ouvre au niveau théorique, au niveau méthodologique et au niveau didactique. La première partie de ce mémoire de thèse pose notre cadre théorique. Nous y retraçons l'avènement du FLP puis nous définissons la théorie des moments. À la suite de quoi, nous explorons comment cette théorie des moments peut apporter de nouvelles perspectives à l'analyse des discours professionnels. La deuxième partie déploie notre cadre méthodologique. Pour ce faire, nous élaborons notre méthode d'enquête, de collecte et d'analyse des données, à la suite de quoi nous mettons à l'épreuve ce cadre méthodologique en l'expérimentant sur deux métiers qui nous ont paru s'opposer sur plusieurs critères : les aides médico-psychologiques, qui accompagnent les personnes dépendantes dans leur quotidien et les officiers supérieurs de l'armée française. Dans la troisième partie, qui pose le cadre didactique, nous avons élaboré un enseignement de FLP en phase avec la notion de moment professionnel. En nous appuyant sur une expérience d'enseignement à l'armée, nous avons montré que ce concept de moment professionnel permettait de renouveler l'enseignement des langues à des fins professionnelles grâce à un certain nombre d'outils didactiques et en focalisant l'apprentissage sur les postures professionnelles. / This thesis aims to enrich the conceptual and methodological framework of French as Professional Language (FPL) by introducing a new operative concept derived from Henri Lefebvre's theory of moments: the professional moment. Our hypothesis is that this concept allows to identify the logics of professional practices and discourses and provides a framework for language teaching focused on those logics. This thesis consists of three main parts who determine prospects resulting from the concept of professional moment on a theoretical, methodological and didactic level. The first part explains the theoretical framework, trace the history of French as a Professional Language and define the theory of moments. Then, it explores prospects of the theory of moments for the professional discourse analysis. The second part concerns our methodological framework and develop our method of investigation, data collection and analysis. Then, this method is applied to two professions that appear to be diametrically opposed: Medical/psychological Assistants who provide dependent people with day-to-day support and French Army senior officers. The third part describes the didactic framework and proposes to apply the concept of professional moment to the teaching of French as Professional Language. Our teaching experience in the army shows that the concept of professional moment allows to renew the teaching of languages for specific vocational purposes by providing some didactic tools and by focusing the learning on professional posture.

Ce mémoire de thèse a pour objet d'enrichir le cadre conceptuel et méthodologique du Français Langue Professionnelle (FLP) en proposant un nouveau concept opératoire issu de la théorie des moments d'Henri Lefebvre: le moment professionnel. Nous formulons l'hypothèse que ce concept permet de mettre au jour les logiques qui traversent les pratiques et les discours professionnels et qu'il fournit un cadre qui permet de concevoir un enseignement de langue centré sur ces logiques. Cette thèse se déroule en trois parties qui vont déterminer les trois perspectives que ce concept de moment professionnel ouvre au niveau théorique, au niveau méthodologique et au niveau didactique. La première partie de ce mémoire de thèse pose notre cadre théorique. Nous y retraçons l'avènement du FLP puis nous définissons la théorie des moments. À la suite de quoi, nous explorons comment cette théorie des moments peut apporter de nouvelles perspectives à l'analyse des discours professionnels. La deuxième partie déploie notre cadre méthodologique. Pour ce faire, nous élaborons notre méthode d'enquête, de collecte et d'analyse des données, à la suite de quoi nous mettons à l'épreuve ce cadre méthodologique en l'expérimentant sur deux métiers qui nous ont paru s'opposer sur plusieurs critères : les aides médico-psychologiques, qui accompagnent les personnes dépendantes dans leur quotidien et les officiers supérieurs de l'armée française. Dans la troisième partie, qui pose le cadre didactique, nous avons élaboré un enseignement de FLP en phase avec la notion de moment professionnel. En nous appuyant sur une expérience d'enseignement à l'armée, nous avons montré que ce concept de moment professionnel permettait de renouveler l'enseignement des langues à des fins professionnelles grâce à un certain nombre d'outils didactiques et en focalisant l'apprentissage sur les postures professionnelles. / This thesis aims to enrich the conceptual and methodological framework of French as Professional Language (FPL) by introducing a new operative concept derived from Henri Lefebvre's theory of moments: the professional moment. Our hypothesis is that this concept allows to identify the logics of professional practices and discourses and provides a framework for language teaching focused on those logics. This thesis consists of three main parts who determine prospects resulting from the concept of professional moment on a theoretical, methodological and didactic level. The first part explains the theoretical framework, trace the history of French as a Professional Language and define the theory of moments. Then, it explores prospects of the theory of moments for the professional discourse analysis. The second part concerns our methodological framework and develop our method of investigation, data collection and analysis. Then, this method is applied to two professions that appear to be diametrically opposed: Medical/psychological Assistants who provide dependent people with day-to-day support and French Army senior officers. The third part describes the didactic framework and proposes to apply the concept of professional moment to the teaching of French as Professional Language. Our teaching experience in the army shows that the concept of professional moment allows to renew the teaching of languages for specific vocational purposes by providing some didactic tools and by focusing the learning on professional posture.

Målet med denna avhandling var att undersöka partnerrelaterat våld mot kvinnor i Sverige från olika perspektiv och med ett särskilt fokus på graviditetsperioden. Syftet var: 1) att ta reda på barnmorskors erfarenheter, attityder och rutiner angående partnerrelaterat våld mot gravida kvinnor inom mödravården; 2) att utforska hur personer som arbetar inom olika program för våldsbenägna män (inom och utom kriminalvården) talar om manligt och kvinnligt och om partnerrelaterat våld, speciellt i förhållande till graviditet; och 3) att belysa kvinnors erfarenheter av att bli och vara gravid samtidigt som de var utsatta för våld i relationen, samt deras möten med barnmorskorna på mödravårdscentralen. Data för tre studier samlades in under åren 1998-2003 med kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder. En enkät skickades till alla yrkesverksamma mödravårdsbarnmorskor i Västerbotten och analyserades statistiskt och med innehållsanalys. Forskningsintervjuerna utfördes och analyserades enligt ’grundad teori’ (för att skapa teoretiska förklaringsmodeller), ’diskursanalys’ (för att visa hur ett gemensamt språkbruk konstruerar ’sanning’) och ’narrativ metod’ (för att tolka och återberätta innebörden i personliga berättelser). Resultaten från de studier som lade grunden till denna avhandling visar på problemets komplexitet, både från de professionellas och från kvinnornas perspektiv. Barnmorskorna (artikel I) var yrkeskunniga men också kunniga om partnerrelaterat våld mot kvinnor, men utan PM eller andra riktlinjer, så blev de osäkra och ställde sällan direkta frågor eftersom ämnet ansågs vara känsligt och tabubelagt. De professionella (artikel II-III) som arbetade med våldsbenägna män i olika program (inom eller utanför kriminalvården) krävde att män skulle ta ansvar för sitt våld. De ansåg att våldsamma män var tämligen vanliga män men avvikande i särskilda avseenden såsom i samspel, kommunikation, nära relationer och i deras kvinnosyn. De professionella beskrev stereotyper om könsskillnader och hur aggressivitet kan starta på olika sätt hos olika typer av män och ansåg också att graviditet kan utlösa konflikter och våld. Likväl så ingick i programmen vanligtvis inte känsliga frågor, om t.ex. graviditet och samlevnad, och trots en god vilja och avsikt att skapa en ’ny maskulinitet’, så tycktes deras strategier och tankegångar rent av kunna motverka deras egna goda syften. De nio intervjuade kvinnorna (artikel IV) som hade varit utsatta för våld beskrev hur deras liv hade varit komplicerade och blivit till en mardröm då deras hjärtevän hade förvandlats till en förövare. Två kvinnor bröt upp från sina relationer under graviditeten på grund av livshotande våld medan de andra för det mesta höll uppe en fasad och dolde det pågående våldet inför barnmorskan och andra alltmedan de gick balansgång mellan hopp och förtvivlan eller väntade på rätt tidpunkt att ge sig av. Förutom kvinnornas berättelser om partnerrelaterat våld under graviditet (artikel IV) så presenterades två professionella grupper och deras gemensamma svårigheter gällande tabun och känsliga frågor utanför det man vanligtvis sysslade med i sin profession (artikel I-III). Barnmorskorna var yrkeskunniga men hade ingen handlingsplan för att kunna bemöta och identifiera komplexiteten i våldsutsatta gravida kvinnors situation som ofta består i att dölja och balansera. De professionella i program för män konfronterade tydligt mäns våld och hade ambitionen att utmana deras maskulinitet, men då de i samtalen exempelvis förbisåg att ta upp vissa känsliga frågor kan utfallet ifrågasättas. / The aim of this thesis was to examine - from different perspectives - intimate partner violence (IPV) against women, focusing on the period of pregnancy, with the object of increasing the available knowledge about this complex subject area, in a Swedish context. The specific aims were: i) to assess the experience, knowledge, attitudes and routines of midwives working in antenatal care regarding IPV against pregnant women; ii) to explore discourses with special reference to IPV, gender and the period of pregnancy of professionals running various intervention programs for men inclined to violence (outside or within the treatment of offenders); and iii) to illuminate experiences in women subjected to IPV by analyzing their stories about becoming and being pregnant as well as meeting antenatal care providers. Three studies were carried out using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Questionnaires sent to all midwives working at antenatal care clinics in the county of Västerbotten were processed by statistical methods and content analysis. The qualitative research interviews followed the ‘grounded theory’, ‘discourse analysis’ or ‘narrative analysis’ approach. The results indicate the complexity of the problem of IPV from the viewpoints of both professional actors and the women. The midwives, although knowledgeable about IPV and certainly experts on pregnancy, felt uncertain regarding IPV and rarely asked direct questions of pregnant women, because the midwives perceived the subject to be difficult and taboo and they lacked guidelines to help them tackle the issue. The professionals in men’s programs intended men to take full responsibility for their own violent behavior. They viewed violent men as rather ordinary but yet deviant in certain respects such as in interplay, communication, relationships and in their views of women. The professionals described gender stereotypes and attributed and generalized certain masculine characteristics to aggressiveness. They also believed that pregnancy could be a potential trigger for conflicts and violence. Nevertheless, pregnancy and sensitive relational topics did not constitute significant parts of the intervention programs. Despite good intentions to change concepts of masculinity, the professionals’ discourses appeared to be rather lacking in reflection and even counter-productive. The women who had been subjected to violence described their complex lives as being terrible nightmares where their lovers turned into perpetrators. Two of the nine interviewed women left their relationships during pregnancy because of life-threatening violence whereas the others mostly kept up a front, hiding the IPV from the antenatal care staff and others while they trod a fine line between hope and despair or waited for the right moment to leave. In addition to women’s stories about IPV during pregnancy, two professional groups presented shared dilemmas regarding taboos and sensitive matters outside ordinary practice. Midwives were proficient but had no action plan to recognize and meet the complexity of the abused pregnant women’s situation involving concealment, balancing and decision-making. Professionals in programs for men were explicitly confronting men’s violence and wanted also to challenge masculinity in their clients. However, their discourse lacked depth by, for instance, their overlooking of sensitive relational topics in dialogues with men.

La forme en -re, dite « futur du subjonctif » (cantare), tombée en désuétude dans la langue standard espagnole, s’observe toujours dans le discours juridique. Dans cette étude, nous faisons l’hypothèse que la forme en -re survit car elle a une utilité pour la communauté des sujets parlants juristes. Adhérant à la linguistique du signifiant, dans la tradition guillaumienne, nous posons que cette utilité découle du signifié de la forme en -re. Notre corpus est composé de plusieurs documents juridiques qui représentent les cinq étapes du système modal définies par Gilles Luquet (1988). Nous choisissons les hypothèses en si car les experts ne s’accordent pas sur les alternatives légitimes de la forme en -re dans les protases de ces hypothèses. Les exemples collectés de ces documents, analysés au regard de la linguistique du signifiant, nous permettent de faire quatre conclusions : 1) l’alternance entre la forme en –se et la forme en -re dans les protases existe depuis le Moyen Âge ; 2) la forme en -re et ses alternatives ont des fonctions pragmatiques : elles contribuent à la cohérence du texte et elles permettent au juriste de faire progresser ourégresser l’argument du texte (fonction déictique) ; 3) la morphologie verbale des apodoses semble fortement liée au sous-genre juridique ; 4) cette étude de la forme en -re et ses alternances dans les hypothèses en si, jette la lumière sur la particularité du morphème si : étant élément du système espagnol d’affirmation, si ramène le perspectif de l’énoncé au présent, permettant au juriste de regarder la situation depuis le non-révolu (forme en -re) ou le révolu (la forme en -se) sans perdre la cohérence de son texte. / The -re form, or “future subjunctive” (cantare), is obsolete in Modern Standard Spanish, yet is still observed in legal literature. In this dissertation, we made the hypothesis that the -re form has survived because it is useful for the community of speakers who interact with legal literature. Using the theory of the linguistique du signifiant, we postulated that the different uses of the -re form are linked its signifier. To test ourhypothesis, we composed a corpus of several legal documents. They represent of each of the five epochs of the Spanish mode system defined by Gilles Luquet (1988). We chose to examine the role of this verb form in the protases of si-clauses because experts do not agree on the legitimate alternative verb forms in this syntax. After the observation and analysis of the examples collected, we made four conclusions. Firstly, the alteration between the -se form and the -re form in protases of si-clauses dates from the Middle Ages. Secondly, the -re form and its alternatives have pragmatic uses: they contribute to textual organization and allow the jurist to move backwards and forwards in the construction of his or herarguments (deictic function). Thirdly, the verbal morphology of the apodoses seems strongly linked with the legal subgenre of the documents. Fourth and finally, our study of the -re form and its alternatives sheds light on the specificities of the morpheme si: because it is part of the Spanish affirmation system, the morpheme si always brings the speaker’s perspective back to the present, allowing the jurist to observe the event unfold from a point in the non-past (-re form) or the past (-se form) without disrupting the text’scoherence.

The thesis investigates team talk and team collaboration from a dialogical perspec­tive, and is based on video recordings of 15 multi­professional team conferences involving a pain rehabilitation team. The analyses also draw upon a vast material of interviews, field notes and documents collected during almost a year of fieldwork at the clinic. The main purpose of the thesis is to shed light on some of the distinguish­ing linguistic features of such team confe­ren­ces and on the pragmatic strategies deployed by the team members in order to bring into play the variety of professional perspectives represented in the team. Ana­lyses of their lexical choices and interaction show three areas of responsibility: professional, overlapping and shared. Analyses of phases, activities and participant structures show how the team conferences can be understood as a specific type of institutional interaction, a communicative activity type that makes it possible both to share information and to reach a shared understanding of the patients’ problems. A deeper interactional analysis reveals pragmatic strategies enhancing the team’s multiprofessional com­munication: the identification and sorting of information, in-depth discussions of specific problems and decision-making procedures. The results illustrate central aspects of what is often called interprofessional competence within the field of health care, i.e. the ability to make the most of multiprofessional collabo­ration. The thesis adds to our understanding of team conferences as a communi­ca­tive activity type and increases our understanding of how participants can offer their perspec­tive through conversation, thereby making it possible for the others to adopt this perspective – in short, to achieve what is often referred to as a democratic dialogue. / Med utgångspunkt i ett dialogiskt perspektiv analyseras samtalen under teamkon­ferenserna i ett smärtrehabiliteringsteam för att beskriva språkliga strategier som stödjer samarbetet mellan företrädare för olika professioner. Analyserna baseras på videoinspelningar av 15 teamkonferenser (motsv. c:a 40 tim) samt fältanteck­ningar, intervjuer och dokument insamlade under ett knappt års fäl­tarbete. Analys­erna av ordförråd och interaktion visar att teammedlemmarnas ansvars­områden består av tre typer: professionsspecifika, delade och gemen­samma ansvarsom­råden. Analyser av faser, delaktiviteter och deltagarstruktur visar hur samtalen kan beskrivas som en form av inominstitutionella arbetsmöten, en verksamhetstyp som både ger möjlighet för teammedlemmarna att dela med sig av information till varandra och att nå en delad förståelse av patienternas situation och möjliga lös­ningar. Vidare har en mer omfattande interaktionsanalys resulterat i en beskriv­ning av språkliga strategier som stödjer samarbetet i teamet: inventering och sortering av information, fördjupande diskussioner av specifika problem samt för­handling och förankring av beslut. Analyserna visar också hur teammedlemmarna tillsammans definierar vilket förklaringsdjup som krävs i dis­kussionen av en viss aspekt av ett problem för att en delad förståelse av prob­lem och potentiella lös­ningar ska kunna uppnås. Tillsammans tydliggör resultaten några centrala aspek­ter av det som brukar kallas interprofessionell kompetens – förmågan att på ett socialt smidigt och interaktionellt effektivt sätt förhålla sig till och överskrida gränserna mellan olika professioners kompetens- och ansvarsområden. Avhandlingen bidrar till för­ståelsen av team­konferenser som verksamhetstyp och fördjupar förståelsen av hur samtalsdel­tagare kan göra sina respektive perspektiv tillgängliga för varandra – en grundläggande förutsättning för att uppnå det vi brukar kalla det goda samtalet.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 210-223. / General introduction -- A multimodal analysis of the 2006 Mexican presidential campaign billboards -- Study 2: Discourses of obligation and prohibition within an institutional setting -- Study 3: Gatekeeping practices at the LEMO: a multimodal analysis -- General conculsions. / This is a thesis composed of three studies linked by a common critical multimodal approach to the analysis of the data. Fairclough's (1992, 1995) three-dimensional framework was drawn on in order to explore the social practice, discursive practice and text dimensions of the discourses in question. The first two studies focus on printed texts in Mexican Spanish, whereas the third study addresses spoken interaction in English with occasional code switching to Spanish. -- Study 1: A Multimodal Analysis of the 2006 Mexican Presidential Campaign Billboards - This is a joint study (with my colleague Michael Witten and approved by my supervisor and the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie) which analyzes the political discourse of the multimodal and multisemiotic texts that the three major political parties involved in the 2006 Mexican presidential elections produced and extensively distributed through the medium of public billboards. We investigate how these parties express their particular ideologies, construct and convey social identities and relationships, and construct relations of power between themselves and the readers/viewers of these texts, through the medium of billboards. As indicated in the preamble, the methodological framework addresses these issues drawing on Fairclough's (1992, 1995) three-dimensional model of analysis while employing a variety of qualitative techniques, tools, and approaches. -- Study 2: Discourses of obligation and prohibition within an institutional setting - Following the theme of multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study examines the institutionalized discourses of obligation and prohibition at the Library of the Language Faculty (LEMO)*of a public university in Mexico. Six different texts pertaining to various genres ranging from a protocol to notices were examined. Multiple qualitative methodologies and tools such as those drawn from ethnography, critical discourse analysis, and systemic functional linguistics are utilized in the analysis of the data. Power relations between the institution and the library users are examined as well as the conditions of text production and reception, the latter through an ethnographic component. An emphasis is placed on the linguistic text. -- Study 3: Gatekeeping practices at the LEMO - This study investigates one of the gatekeeping practices at the Language Faculty of a public university in Mexico (see above). The particular practice concerned consists of the professional examinations (vivas) that students have to take in order to obtain their degrees of 'Licenciatura en Lenguas Modernas' (BEd in Modern Languages) in the English Teaching section of the university. This study focuses on the professional discourse(s) utilized by both candidates and examiners by means of analyzing the texts of four recorded professional examinations. This study chiefly draws on Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical concepts of 'frontstage' and 'backstage', where the analysis of the frontstage work addresses the Question-and-Answer section of the examinations, and the analysis of the backstage work addresses the subsequent deliberations among the examiners concerning the performance of the candidates. Multiple qualitative methodologies and tools are again drawn upon, such as ethnographic analysis, interactional sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis. (* Facultad de Lenguas) / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xii, 233 p. : ill. (some col.)

The aim of this thesis is to acquire a deeper knowledge of Swedish social services’ written child welfare investigations. These investigations are conducted and documented by social workers at social welfare offices, and the investigations sometimes have a major impact on the lives of individuals. The research material consists of 50 written child welfare investigations, social workers’ answers to interviews and questionnaires and also steering documents regulating the child welfare practice of the social services, but the study focuses on the written investigations. Drawing on genre analysis theory and critical discourse analysis, patterns of linguistic features in the investigations are highlighted and considered as genre-specific features. Overall the investigations as written documents are considered both as discursive tools in a professional setting and as social authorities’ texts with great power in an asymmetrical power relation between authorities and individuals. This inherent duality implies different communicative purposes which are difficult to merge in the same document. The study includes a variety of empirical data and analytical tools deriving from genre analysis, critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and linguistic stylistics. In the study both quantitative and qualitative approaches are combined, creating methodological triangulation. The results show that all the investigations are alike in terms of communicative purposes, indicating that the concept of genre is rigid concerning the text sample. In other respects all the investigations are characterized by variation, in both linguistic and more content-oriented aspects. In some sections of the texts the language is formal and in others it is casual. This can be understood as a consequence of different purposes coexisting in the same text. The results also show that different text participants are constructed differently concerning responsibility for affecting other participants. The authorities’ impact through processes is often hidden in passive clauses. Another result indicates that pseudo-nominalization is a functional linguistic tool in the discourse, which might be a reason to reevaluate plain language recommendations regarding this grammatical construct. / Texter med tyngd