This study examines how Taiwanese college students understand the traditional, culturally Chinese concept of Yuan and its role in their use of a new and distinctive Taiwanese social networking site—Dcard. Particular attention is paid to the Dcard’s unique friending mechanism, which provides users the opportunity to connect (or not) with one, seemingly random new friend each day at midnight. Through thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured long interviews, the study finds that Dcard users understand Yuan as a multi-faceted concept pertaining primarily to interpersonal relationships (relationalism). Users perceive Yuan to influence relationships in a predetermined, causal fashion (fatalism), but they still assert some agency in their relationships (controllability), including their ability to believe deeply in Yuan. Users perceive Yuan to play an important role Dcard use, and the concept’s different facets each influence key moments in the friending process—from receiving a friend recommendation, to the choice of whether to accept or reject that request, to the initiation and maintenance of relationships through Dcard. Dcard’s architecture, including elements of randomness and partial anonymity intensify the experience of Yuan. This study underscores the importance of studying how cultural concepts like Yuan are socially constructed and used in online contexts. More, it illustrates how social networking sites can use design and architecture to tap into culture to attract and retain users.

Current language theory focuses on how a person communicates within a context (Bates, 1976a). A person's communicative competence depends on how effectively she translates her cognitive and social knowledge into linguistic forms to interact in the specific situation, following pragmatic rules (Prutting, 1982b). Thus, in order to assess a person's language ability accurately, the clinician needs to assess pragmatic skills as well as cognitive, social, and linguistic skills. A person's pragmatic development culminates in the ability to participate in a conversation (Rees, 1978).

When strangers meet, there is a high level of uncertainty due to the infinite number of possible alternatives in behavior between the two people. Previous research indicates that communicators will attempt to reduce the level of uncertainty by using available verbal and nonverbal information of the other, by seeking similarities with the other, and by observing the situation itself. This information is used to predict attitudes and beliefs, as well as to attribute characteristics of the other. Other studies indicate that a person will increase her level of self-monitoring activity when the level of uncertainty is increased.

This report presents a descriptive study of characteristics of persons using a family court service. A comparison is made between persons using the service and a sample of the population whom the agency was designed to serve. The purposes of the study were to determine if the agency was serving the client population it was designed to serve and to provide a socio-demographic data base for further research and planning at the agency.

This study examines style shift between formal and informal styles in first- encounter conversations between Japanese native speakers and demonstrates how the speakers shifted the speech style in the context. Many researchers have studied this type of style shift and demonstrated that style shifts occur within a single speech context where social factors, such as differences in age, status, and formalness remain constant (e.g., Cook, 2008; Geyer, 2008; Ikuta, 1983; Maynard, 1991; Okamoto, 1999). This study contributed support to these previous studies. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative analyses focusing on Japanese native speakers' use of style shifting in first-encounter conversations were conducted. The data came from four dyadic first-encounter conversations between Japanese female speakers. The conversations were audio-recorded in a room where the researcher was not present. After recording the four conversations, the researcher conducted follow-up interviews in person or by phone in order to check the validity of my analysis collected for this study. Overall, all the speakers shifted between formal and informal styles at least ten times, indicating that they did not speak exclusively in one style or the other in the current data. The frequency of style shifts varied depending on the speakers, but in each conversation, the older partners of the pairs shifted their speech style more frequently than the younger partners of the pairs. Furthermore, this study found six factors that accounted for style shifts between the formal and informal. When (1) introducing a new topic and (2) closing a topic, speakers shifted from informal to formal style. This signaled the opening of a new topic directly to the addressee. On the other hand, they shifted from formal style to informal style when (1) expressing feelings, (2) using self-directed utterances, (3) asking questions for confirmation or inference, and (4) adjusting to the context (formality and/or deference). The follow-up interviews revealed that the factors referred to as (1) expression of feelings, (2) self-directed utterances, and (3) questions for confirmation or inference were used by some speakers unconsciously. The self- directed utterances of factor (2) were divided into three types: soliloquy-like remarks, asking oneself a question, and recalling something. Factor (4) adjusting to the context (formality and/or deference), formal style was used to show politeness toward the addressee, and informal style was used to show friendliness, casualness, or empathy. Friendliness, casualness, or empathy was conveyed by use of informal style when the speakers' utterances brought laughter to the context and/or when the speakers showed empathy for the addressee.

Within a Southwestern school system, deficits in early literacy skills exist as is illustrated by kindergarten students not meeting the requirements on the Phonological Awareness and Phonics Inventory (PAPI). To address this deficit in early literacy skills, the school system instituted the use of the Guided Reading Approach (GR); however, it was unknown how the kindergarten teachers were implementing GR. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences and challenges of kindergarten teachers who implement GR. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning and constructivist theory provided the conceptual framework. Research questions explored the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs teachers hold about GR as well as the challenges teachers face when incorporating GR. A case study methodology was used to investigate 6 kindergarten teachers' experiences with implementing GR through the use of interviews and document analysis. Analysis of data revealed that teachers believed that GR was a necessary component of teaching and increased student success. However, teachers did not have enough training, collaboration, or time to invest in GR. A professional training was developed for teachers as a result. The 3-day training will provide teachers with an overview of GR, opportunities for the participants to collaborate with colleagues, and time for the development of GR lesson plans that can immediately be transferred to the classroom. Positive social change may result by helping teachers better understand GR (components and implementation), which may result in an improved reading program, higher student performance, and information to influence others to improve reading programs.

Various challenges can threaten the security of personal relationships, but one of the most difficult problems to manage is geographic distance. As more people live apart from someone about whom they care, the prevalence of long-distance relationships will increase. However, research on how long-distance friendships are characterized and accomplished lags behind. Therefore, the present study was designed to uncover how women define and maintain their long-distance friendships. A total of 34 interviews were conducted with first-year undergraduate students, first-year graduate students, and recently-hired faculty members at a large university. The interview transcripts were analyzed inductively, which resulted in the creation of nine categories. These were eventually reduced to six maintenance behaviors: openness, assurances, positivity, joint activities, personal networks, and mediated communication. Participants also challenged definitions of long-distance friendship based upon geography and replaced them with definitions based upon communication (access to interaction, use of mediated communication, level of closeness, and a commitment to expend the necessary time and energy to make it work). Although long-distance friendships may require more effort and involve more mediated communication, this study demonstrates that long-distance friends rely on similar maintenance behaviors as geographically-close friends. This indicates that long-distance friendships may not be as dramatically different or as perplexing as commonly thought. Overall, the present study reveals that long-distance friendships can be satisfying and maintained successfully, which challenges both cultural assumptions and traditional social science research. Many long-distance friendships are well-equipped to weather both changes and challenges, making them flexible, not fragile.

This study first examines the effectiveness of stealing thunder in increasing the target’s liking for the discloser. The study further inspects liking relative to the amount of information known about the discloser prior to their initial interaction. Additionally, the target’s perception of the negativity of the information revealed is observed. 120 subjects participated in an experiment during which they were either exposed to the negative information via the confederate or the experimenter or were not exposed at all. Results, although interesting, were largely inconsistent with the hypotheses. This could have been due to several factors namely, poor experimental execution and unreliability of measurement. However, stealing thunder, with further testing, has several implications for the current state of the stealing thunder literature and future research.

The dissertation investigates oral communication from a language development perspective. The overall aim is to study the oral communication that is part of the learning process for Swedish as a subject and for vocational courses in the upper secondary schools. The focus is specifically on learning that incorporates reasoning and prepared speech. The method used is derived from ethnography and Conversation Analysis. The material consists of fieldnotes, video and audio recordings of lessons from two different classes. The dissertation is theoretically linked to “New Literacy Studies”; the oral prac¬tices and oral cultures involved in the instruction of Swedish are described and viewed as part of school literacy. The concept ‘elaborated topic’ is used to analyse the extent to which students and teachers develop reasoning. The results show that instruction in vocational training programmes can provide students with different conditions for oral language development. Students in the nursing programme took part in more varied communication than students in the technically/practically-oriented programme. The different oral cultures in the two classes could be described in terms of patterns for reasoning and prepared speech, knowledge ideology and power relations. The oral cultures of the classes investigated are reflected in the way they performed in the national test. The students’ ability to develop a sufficiently extensive line of reasoning for the test’s prepared speech did not correspond to how well they developed each topic of discus¬sion. The dissertation emphasises the importance of dialogically organised instruction with students in every upper secondary programme being encour¬aged in their reasoning and prepared speech. It highlights language and communication in and of itself as important content in the instruction of Swedish. Finally, it argues that each subject is responsible for contributing to the language development of students.

The vision of K-12 standards-based mathematics reform embraces a greater emphasis on students’ ability to communicate their understandings of mathematics by utilizing adaptive reasoning (i.e., reflection, explanation, and justification of thinking) through mathematics discourse. However, recent studies suggest that many students lack the socio-cognitive capacity needed to succeed in learner-centered, discussion-intensive mathematics classrooms. A multiple case study design was used to examine the nature of participation in mathematics discourse among two low- and two high-performing sixth grade female students while solving rational number tasks in a standards-based classroom. Data collected through classroom observations, student interviews, and student work samples were analyzed via a multiple-cycle coding process that yielded several important within-case and cross-case findings. Within-case analyses revealed that (a) students’ access to participation was mediated by the degree of space they were afforded and how they attempted to utilize that space, as well as the meaning they were able to construct through providing and listening to explanations; and (b) participation was greatly influenced by peer interactional tendencies that either promoted or impeded productive contributions, as well as teacher interactions that helped to offset some of the problems related to unequal access to participation. Cross-case findings suggested that (a) students’ willingness to contribute to task discussions was related to their goal orientations as well as the degree of social risk perceived with providing incorrect solutions before their peers; and (b) differences between the kinds of peer and teacher interactions that low- and high-performers engaged in were directly related to the types of challenges they faced during discussion of these tasks. An important implication of this study’s findings is that the provision of space and meaning for students to participate equitably in rich mathematics discourse depends greatly on teacher interaction, especially in small-group instructional settings where unequal peer status often leads to unequal peer interactions. Research and practice should continue to focus on addressing ways in which students can learn how to help provide adequate space and meaning in small-group mathematics discussion contexts so that all students involved are allowed access to an optimally rich learning experience.