An action research design, incorporating the repertory grid as a framework for Learning Conversations, is used to examine the management of change for a group of teachers and their schools. The study sets out to analyse how individual, teachers, from twelve primary and middle schools, in three outer London boroughs, learnt about managing change in their schools, in relation to children with Special Educational Needs. To study how the school supported these individuals, Headteachers and Deputy Heads were also included in the research. The sample of teachers was chosen from those who had attended either of two sets of in-service courses on Special Educational Needs in Ordinary Schools. The first set of teachers had recently completed their course; the second had completed courses between five and eight years previously. This gave an opportunity to compare short-term and long-term learning outcomes from these courses. As the study progressed, so did the development of the use of the conversational techniques. Flexible Learning Conversations, which went beyond the repertory grid techniques, were developed, and the evidence showed that this improved individuals' ability to reflect on their work, thus gaining confidence for future action in their schools. It was, also possible to develop a procedure for small groups of participants to share their own constructs, elicited from personal grid conversations. This led, into a Group Learning Conversation, which also included future action planning. The research also examines the interaction of action research and the Learning Conversation using the repertory grid, in helping to develop reflective practitioners and effective schools. As co-ordinating tutor for both sets of in-service courses, as a co-ordinator of LEA support services in two of the LEAs, and in the role as action researcher, my personal learning has formed part of the research outcomes.

George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory, especially as subsumed within the “conversational science" paradigm developed by Thomas and Harri-Augstein, is fundamentally a framework for a geometry of personal meaning in which all of the dimensions of distinction within a person’s experience are like the dimensions of geometric space. A person's system of constructs is not just a framework for predicting the attributes of future events; it is a coordinate system for navigating the dimensionality of experience. The work of F. M. Alexander is primarily concerned with the "psycho-physical unity of the individual," and thus with the continuity of experience. The present work has two aims. The first, drawing on the work of Merleau-Ponty and John Dewey, and culminating in the concept of "Conductive Reasoning", is to lay a theoretical foundation for a synthesis of the practical work of Kelly and Alexander. The primary premise is that the act of comprehending is an embodied act, and as such is as subject to the conditions of the coordination of the whole person as is any other act. The second, practical, aim has been to develop a conversational methodology for dealing with learning in a more fully embodied way. This method of "conductive conversation," formally derived from the "Learning Conversation," evolved from the author's teaching experience with the Alexander Technique. Appendix 1, "A Conversational Introduction to Conductive Reasoning," is an interactive conversational structure which incorporates a development of these concepts in the context of personal experiments for generating the kinds of experiences from which the reader may draw something of the intended meaning, and some skill in using the conductive conversational tools for exploring embodied dimensions in their own meaning. It is intended as a piece that will stand on its own as a conversational research instrument for personal scientists.

This paper explores how flouting of the Gricean maxims is used to create comedy in the television series Community.  The aim of the paper is to find out what maxims are flouted the most to create comedy and what maxims the different characters flout in order to create comedy. The paper examines the use of flouts in different situations and explores in what situations the different characters flout the maxims for comedy.  The paper is based on transcription of eight episodes of the series. The results show that the maxim of quantity was flouted most often, and some characters used more flouts than others. These results suggest that the use of flouts has to do with their different personalities, which is why some characters did not use as many flouts in order to create comedy, since it would not be in line with their personality.

When we converse we constantly fail to observe the rules of conversation in order to simplify and make dialogues more effective. The scriptwriters who work with TV shows use non-observances of maxims in order to evoke different feelings from their viewers. The aim of this paper was to investigate how frequently non-observances of maxims occurred in the TV shows Desperate Housewives and That 70’s Show. I examined where and why they were used as well as how often flouting was used compared to violations. The base of the study was a drama and a comedy show. Research has shown that the maxim of relevance is most frequently used to create different comical or dramatic situations. The scriptwriters have their characters ignore what is relevant to the situations in order to make them come off as flustered, odd and stupid in humorous situations and as mysterious, cowardly, respectful or bold in dramatic situations. Also research shows that flouting occurs more frequently than violations when it comes to breaking maxims. Violations occur most often with the maxim of quality when the characters lie to mislead in order to direct blame away from him/herself. In Conclusion, this investigation has shown that non-observances of maxims are important for scriptwriters in order to create humorous and dramatic situations in verbal interaction.

Abstract The present study aims to map out the extent to which bilingual Sweden-Finnish teenagers can make use of their second language Swedish in order to communicate pragmatic information. The main aim is to study whether speakers of a second language can achieve near-native competence in the second language, i.e. whether their conversational style is identical with that of first-language speakers. The material consists of audiotaped simulated dialogues. The starting-point of the analysis is the idea that the conversational strategies used by a speaker reveal his global conversational style. The present study is concerned with very advanced second-language speakers. They were born in Sweden to Finnish families, with Finnish as their first language. The official language in school and elsewhere in society is Swedish. However, they live in a society which is highly bilingual and where Finnish can be used – and is used by the present informants – in everyday life in more informal contexts. Even though the informants can be regarded as very advanced speakers of Swedish, the analysis suggests that their use of Swedish is different from that of the native speakers. Furthermore, the analysis shows no signs of pragmatic transfer from the Sweden-Finnish speakers' first language Finnish into their second language Swedish – or vice versa. The Sweden-Finnish speakers follow a Finnish conversational style when speaking Finnish, but they do not transfer this style into their performance in Swedish. Nevertheless, their conversational style in Swedish deviates from that of native Swedish speakers. / Abstrakt Föreliggande avhandling har som syfte att beskriva tvåspråkiga sverigefinska ungdomars sätt att använda sig av andraspråket svenska när det gäller det pragmatiska språkbruket. Det övergripande målet i analysen är att studera om andraspråkstalare kan nå infödd nivå i andraspråket, dvs. om deras samtalsstil på andraspråket är identisk med infödda talares. Materialet består av simulerade dialoger. Analysen utgår från tanken att de strategier som talare använder sig av i interaktion avspeglar den övergripande, globala samtalsstil som gäller i ett helt samtal. Det gäller här mycket avancerade andraspråkstalare. De är födda i Sverige i finskspråkiga familjer med finska som förstaspråk. Det officiella språket i skolan och i övrigt i samhället är svenska. Det aktuella samhället är dock starkt tvåspråkigt där finska kan användas – och används av de aktuella informanterna – i det vardagliga livet i mer informella kontexter. även om det är fråga om mycket avancerade andraspråkstalare, tyder den aktuella analysen på att det finns drag i deras andraspråk svenska som avviker från de infödda talarnas språkbruk. Analysen avslöjar vidare inga tecken på pragmatisk transfer från de sverigefinska informanternas förstaspråk finska över till deras svenska – eller omvänt. De ser ut att följa den finska samtalsstilen i samtal på finska men överför inte denna stil till samtal på svenska.

Möten är idag en viktig arena för organisationer att ta beslut, lösa problem och sprida information. I vår studie har vi valt att fördjupa oss i hur dessa möten går till inom förskolan när man samlar all personal i ett APT-möte. Studiens övergripande syfte är att skapa mer kunskap om hur ledarskapet skapas och markeras under APT-möten inom förskolan. Syftet är även att se hur APT-möten går till samt hur de institutionella rollerna skapas och upprätthålls. Vi har även valt att studera hur distansledarskapet som finns i denna verksamhet synliggörs.     Studien bygger på tre APT-möten som är inspelade med videokamera och som sedan analyserades med samtalsanalys som teoretiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att APT-mötet till stor del följde de faser som finns i ett institutionellt samtal, att olika roller markeras genom hur turtagning går till, hur man förhåller sig till agendan samt på vilket sätt man ledaren tolkar och sammanfattar det som deltagarna säger. Distansledarskapet gick att identifiera i avsaknad av kunskap om problem i den operativa verksamheten och att det fanns ett önskemål av medarbetarna att chefen skulle komma ut i den operativa verksamheten. / Organisational meetings are an important occasion to make decisions, solve problems and to share information with each other. In this study, the focus has been on how these meetings are created by its participants within preschool. The purpose of this study is to gain deeper knowledge in how leadership is created and identified during these meetings. The purpose of this study is also to see how the institutional roles within this organisation is created and recreated and also to see how the distance leadership that is in this specific organisation can get identified.   The study include a video observation of three meetings at three different preschools. These three meetings gave us a result that were analysed through CA (Conversational analysis). The result shows that these meetings follows the institutional phases that are included in institutional meetings, that institutional roles are created in interaction and especially through the way in which the leader takes responsibility to the meeting agenda and in the way the leader creates meaning of what the participants says. A distance leadership was identified through the leaders lack of knowledge in problems related to day-to-day work and also through a wish from the co-workers to have the leader more present in their everyday work.

Conversational agents such as Siri, Google and Alexa are growing in popularity, and Artificial Intelligence in the form of natural language processing utilized by these agents is becoming more available and capable with time. Understanding how conversational agents are used today and what implications it has for our daily lives is important if this trend is going to continue. In this thesis I present how children interact with conversational agents today and the implications this has for families. Four families with children in the age of 6-9 were interviewed regarding how children interact with conversational agents today, what concerns parents have and how they view the agent. The results show that children regard the conversational agent as a tool, and that the primary interactions are entertainment and exploration. Parents were concerned what the agent might say when they are not there, and do not feel in control of the agent. In the beginning children have high expectations on the capabilities of the agent but quickly assess the capabilities through experimentation.

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Artificial intelligence has grown in importance in many application areas. However, the application in the education sector is in an embryonic state, where a variety of trials has been conducted. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate the factors that influence the acceptability of AI chatbots by university students in higher education which might point subsequently to the lack of usage. The study also suggests the most appropriate communication areas of AI chatbot application in higher education suggested by students. For this study, the unified theory of Acceptance and Use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) has been compiled with the qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. The study participants are university students from various countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic). The findings showed three primary constructs: Performance expectancy (PE), Effort expectancy (EE), and a newly proposed construct, Nonjudgmental expectancy (NE), to significantly predict intention to use AI chatbot technology without education intentionality. Students suggested using AI chatbots for recap of course material, study material recommendation, and exam and requirements information.  Furthermore, this study provides a rationale behind AI chatbot acceptability based on students' generation characteristics. The results can guide universities to incorporate innovative solutions into their organization.

The aim of this work is to simplify access to information for citizens of the city of Brno and at the same time to innovate the way of communication between the citizen and his city. The problem is solved by creating a conversational agent - chatbot Kroko. Using artificial intelligence and a Czech language analyzer, the agent is able to understand and respond to a certain set of textual, natural language queries. The agent is available on the Messenger platform and has a knowledge base that includes data provided by the city council. After conducting an extensive user testing on a total of 76 citizens of the city, it turned out that up to 97\% of respondents like the idea of a city-oriented chatbot and can imagine using it regularly. The main finding of this work is that the general public can easily adopt and effectively use a chatbot. The results of this work motivate further development of practical applications of conversational agents.