Language Use In Conversation Research Articles

Formal Language Use in Conversations among Second-Semester Students at English Education Study Program of Universitas Nias

This study aims to describe the use of formal language in conversations among college students semester II at English education study program of Universitas Nias. This research used comprehensive qualitative method. Data were taken from video conversations to evaluate how students apply formal language in formal situations. The results show that students begin to use formal language with respect and professionalism through the use of standard vocabulary, complex sentence structures, and correct grammar. The study also highlights the factors that influence the use of formal language, as well as the importance of practice and feedback in developing formal speaking skills and preparing students for future professional environments. By emphasizing formal language practice and providing constructive feedback, teaching can help students build competence and confidence in a variety of communication contexts.

Language matters for biodiversity

Abstract Language is central to the way people learn about the natural world. A salient concern of the biodiversity conservation arena has been to understand how language can be employed by scientists to communicate knowledge to nonexpert audiences and build ecological literacy. The use of analogy and narrative by scientists are prominent techniques. In this article, we consider how these two modes of language-based reasoning extend into ordinary conversational language use by the public, specifically when articulating everyday understanding and experiences of biodiversity. Drawing on a process of public engagement in a UK woodland environment, a typological framework based on principles of analogical and narrative reasoning is developed to characterize the precise character of processes of everyday biodiversity sense making. The implications of the framework are discussed in the context of future biodiversity research, particularly its participatory and educational dimensions.

A Sweet Tutorial to the SUGAR Method of Language Sampling

Purpose: The purposes of this tutorial are (a) to describe a method of language sample analysis (LSA) referred to as SUGAR (Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised) and (b) to offer step-by-step instructions detailing how to collect, transcribe, analyze, and interpret the results of a SUGAR language sample. Method: The tutorial begins with an overview of current LSA use, including barriers to clinical implementation, followed by an overview of the SUGAR method. Next, the SUGAR method is described in detail, including collecting the sample, transcribing the sample, analyzing the sample, and interpreting the results. To illustrate the method, each section includes an accompanying appendix that provides an example of a sample transcript and the various analyses. Conclusions: SUGAR offers speech-language pathologists one way to conduct LSA that is cost free, valid, and efficient. Clinicians can collect, transcribe, and analyze samples in approximately 21 min. The results of a SUGAR analysis can be used to document the presence of a language impairment, obtain a detailed description of a child's conversational language use, identify intervention targets, and develop intervention goals.

Fungsi Register Urban Mama dalam Grup Aimi dan HHBF (Kajian Sosiolinguistik)

Register is a variation of language that is adapted to the context of language use. This study is a study of urban mama registers in the AIMI and HHBF Facebook groups that are studied with sociolinguistics. The research aims to find several things, namely the register function. The researcher uses a qualitative approach with descriptive analysis. The study uses three methods, namely data collection methods, data analysis, and presentation of data analysis. Data collection using the method of listening and note related to the use of urban mom language in conversations in the AIMI group (Association of Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers) and HHBF (HeathlyHommade Baby Food), data collection was also carried out by in-depth interviews and FGD. Data analysis uses register analysis, which is analyzing the specific vocabulary used in certain jobs or communities. The method of presenting the results of data analysis is an informal method that is using words that are easily understood. The results showed that the urban mama register function in the AIMI and HHBF groups was 1) emotive function, 2) conative function, 3) referential function, 4) fatigue function, and 5) metalingual function.

Retrieval processes and audience design

Conversational partners develop shared knowledge. In referential communication tasks, partners collaboratively establish brief labels for hard-to-name images. These image-label mappings are associated in memory with that partner, evidenced by use of those brief labels with the same partner, and longer descriptions with new partners. According to the people-as-contexts view, the conversational partner functions as a contextual cue to support retrieval of conversationally-relevant information. Inspired by findings from the memory literature that context effects can be stronger when retrieval is more explicit, two experiments test the hypothesis that the speaker will be more likely to invoke the partner as a retrieval cue when retrieval processes are more explicit. The results indicated a strong effect of partner that, contrary to these predictions, was not boosted by explicit retrieval processes. The lack of an effect of retrieval processes speaks to the ubiquity with which language use in conversation is tailored to the particular people with whom we converse.

Running Repairs: Coordinating Meaning in Dialogue.

People give feedback in conversation: both positive signals of understanding, such as nods, and negative signals of misunderstanding, such as frowns. How do signals of understanding and misunderstanding affect the coordination of language use in conversation? Using a chat tool and a maze-based reference task, we test two experimental manipulations that selectively interfere with feedback in live conversation: (a) "Attenuation" that replaces positive signals of understanding such as "right" or "okay" with weaker, more provisional signals such as "errr" or "umm" and (2) "Amplification" that replaces relatively specific signals of misunderstanding from clarification requests such as "on the left?" with generic signals of trouble such as "huh?" or "eh?". The results show that Amplification promotes rapid convergence on more systematic, abstract ways of describing maze locations while Attenuation has no significant effect. We interpret this as evidence that "running repairs"-the processes of dealing with misunderstandings on the fly-are key drivers of semantic coordination in dialogue. This suggests a new direction for experimental work on conversation and a productive way to connect the empirical accounts of Conversation Analysis with the representational and processing concerns of Formal Semantics and Psycholinguistics.

Preference organization driving structuration: Evidence from Australian Aboriginal interaction for pragmatically motivated grammaticalization

Kin-enriched morphosyntax has emerged many times in distantly related Australian languages. An examination of language use in conversation reveals that this emergence can be explained in terms of convergent evolutionary pressures. All Australian Aboriginal societies have classificatory kinship, and all have taboos limiting the use of personal names. A conversational preference for avoiding restricted names (Levinson 2007) and preferences for achieving recognition and being succinct (Sacks & Schegloff 1979, Schegloff 1996) provide selection principles that assist speakers in choosing the most suitable expressions for the given occasions of reference. Because kin-based expressions are not names, but are nevertheless useful for securing recipients’ recognition of referents, they are regularly selected when names are unsuitable. Through repeated selection in conversation, the same preferences ultimately drive the diachronic development of kin-based morphosyntax. The Murrinh-Patha case study in this article presents the development of kin-based morphology through reanalysis. It then draws on fragments of face-to-face conversation exemplifying how conversational pressures bias the selection of kin-based structures. Finally, the micro-and macrocausal domains are linked through an ‘invisible hand’ explanation (Keller 1994).

Talking in another person’s shoes: Incremental perspective-taking in language processing

Language use in conversation is fundamentally incremental, and is guided by the representations that interlocutors maintain of each other’s knowledge and beliefs. While there is a consensus that interlocutors represent the perspective of others, three candidate models, a Perspective-Adjustment model, an Anticipation-Integration model, and a Constraint-Based model, make conflicting predictions about the role of perspective information during on-line language processing. Here we review psycholinguistic evidence for incrementality in language processing, and the recent methodological advance that has fostered its investigation—the use of eye-tracking in the visual world paradigm. We present visual world studies of perspective-taking, and evaluate each model's account of the data. We argue for a Constraint-Based view in which perspective is one of multiple probabilistic constraints that guide language processing decisions. Addressees combine knowledge of a speaker’s perspective with rich information from the discourse context to arrive at an interpretation of what was said. Understanding how these sources of information combine to influence interpretation requires careful consideration of how perspective representations were established, and how they are relevant to the communicative context.

Volubility as a mediator in the associations between conversational language measures and child temperament

Despite support for the use of conversational language measures, concerns remain regarding the extent to which they may be confounded with aspects of child temperament, extraversion in particular. This study of 161 twins from the Western Reserve Reading Project (WRRP) examined the associations between children's conversational language use and three key aspects of child temperament: Surgency (i.e., introversion/extraversion), Effortful Control (i.e., attention and task persistence) and Negative Affectivity (e.g., fear, anger, sadness). Child biological sex was considered as a possible moderating factor. Correlational analyses were conducted between aspects of temperament during early school-age years (i.e., 7-8 years), as measured by the Children's Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form (CBQ), and six different measures of children's conversational language use: total number of complete and intelligible utterances (TCICU), number of total words (NTW), mean length of utterance (MLU), total number of conjunctions (TNC), number of different words (NDW) and measure D (i.e., a measure of lexical diversity). Values for NTW, TNC and NDW were derived both on the entire sample and on the first 100 C-units. Correlations between language and temperament were compared between girls and boys using the Fisher r-to-z transformation to examine the significance of potential moderating effects. Children's reported variability in Effortful Control did not correlate significantly with any of the child language measures. In contrast, children's Negative Affectivity and Surgency tended to demonstrate positive, albeit modest, correlations with those conversational language measures that were derived from the sample as a whole, rather than from a standardized number of utterances. MLU, as well as measures of NDW and NTW derived from standardized sample lengths of 100 C-units, did not correlate with any measure of child temperament. TNC demonstrated an unexpected negative correlation with child Surgency when it was derived from a standardized number of C-units, but not when derived from the entire sample length. Child biological sex did not moderate the significant associations between language and temperament measures. Overall, measures that control for volubility did not correlate significantly with child temperament; however, measures that reflected volubility tended to correlate weakly with some aspects of temperament, particularly Surgency. Results provide a degree of discriminant evidence for the validity of MLU and measures of type (i.e., NDW) and token use (i.e., NTW) when derived from a standardized number of utterances.

A Cognitive Architecture for the Coordination of Utterances

Dialog partners coordinate with each other to reach a common goal. The analogy with other joint activities has sparked interesting observations (e.g., about the norms governing turn-taking) and has informed studies of linguistic alignment in dialog. However, the parallels between language and action have not been fully explored, especially with regard to the mechanisms that support moment-by-moment coordination during language use in conversation. We review the literature on joint actions to show (i) what sorts of mechanisms allow coordination and (ii) which types of experimental paradigms can be informative of the nature of such mechanisms. Regarding (i), there is converging evidence that the actions of others can be represented in the same format as one’s own actions. Furthermore, the predicted actions of others are taken into account in the planning of one’s own actions. Similarly, we propose that interlocutors are able to coordinate their acts of production because they can represent their partner’s utterances. They can then use these representations to build predictions, which they take into account when planning self-generated utterances. Regarding (ii), we propose a new methodology to study interactive language. Psycholinguistic tasks that have traditionally been used to study individual language production are distributed across two participants, who either produce two utterances simultaneously or complete each other’s utterances.

Context effects on young children’s language use: The influence of conversational setting and partner

This article reports on two studies investigating the effect of contextual variables on young children’s language use in conversation. In Study 1, 20 children between age 1;5 and 2;2 were recorded in conversation with their mothers in three settings: mealtime, toy play, and book reading. In Study 2, 16 children between age 1;9 and 3;0 were recorded in dyadic toy play interaction with three different conversational partners: a 5-year-old older sibling, an 8-year-old older sibling, and their mother. Both studies found effects of the contextual variable on children’s vocabulary use and discourse cohesion.The children used a richer vocabulary and produced more topic-continuing contributions in book reading than in other contexts, and they used a richer vocabulary and produced more responses to questions in conversation with their mothers than in conversation with their older siblings. Despite mean effects of context, there was cross-context stability in the individual differences among children.

Medication communication: a concept analysis

This paper is a report of a concept analysis of medication communication with a particular focus on how it applies to nursing. Medication communication is a vital component of patient safety, quality of care, and patient and family engagement. Nevertheless, this concept has been consistently taken-for-granted without adequate analysis, definition or clarification in the quality and patient safety literature. A literature search was undertaken using bibliographic databases, internet search engines, and hand searches. Literature published in English between January 1988 and June 2009 was reviewed. Walker and Avant's approach was used to guide the concept analysis. Medication communication is a dynamic and complex process. Defining attributes consider who speaks, who is silent, what is said, what aspects of medication care are prioritized, the use of body language in conversations, and actual words used. Open communication occurs if there is cooperation among individuals in implementing plans of care. Antecedents involve environmental influences such as ward culture and geographical space, and sociocultural influences such as beliefs about the nature of interactions. Consequences involve patient and family engagement in communication, evidence of appropriate medication use, the frequency and type of medication-related adverse events, and the presence of medication adherence. Empirical referents typically do not reflect specific aspects of medication communication. This concept analysis can be used by nurses to guide them in understanding the complexities surrounding medication communication, with the ultimate goal of improving patient safety, quality of care, and facilitating patient and family engagement.

Conversational Language Use as a Predictor of Early Reading Development: Language History as a Moderating Variable

The present study examined the nature of concurrent and predictive associations between conversational language use and reading development during early school-age years. Language and reading data from 380 twins in the Western Reserve Reading Project were examined via phenotypic correlations and multilevel modeling on exploratory latent factors. In the concurrent prediction of children's early reading abilities, a significant interaction emerged between children's conversational language abilities and their history of reported language difficulties. Specifically, conversational language concurrently predicted reading development above and beyond variance accounted for by formal vocabulary scores, but only in children with a history of reported language difficulties. A similar trend was noted in predicting reading skills 1 year later, but the interaction was not statistically significant. Findings suggest a more nuanced view of the association between spoken language and early reading than is commonly proposed. One possibility is that children with and without a history of reported language difficulties rely on different skills, or the same skills to differing degrees, when completing early reading-related tasks. Future studies should examine the causal link between conversational language and early reading specifically in children with a history of reported language difficulties.

Use of the Twin Design to Examine Evocative Gene-Environment Effects within a Conversational Context

The purpose of this study was to highlight the role of twin designs in understanding children's conversational interactions. Specifically, we (a) attempted to replicate the findings of genetic effects on children's conversational language use reported in DeThorne et al. (2008), and (b) examined whether the language used by examiners in their conversation with twins reflected differences in the children's genetic similarity. Behavioral genetic analyses included intraclass correlations and model fitting procedures applied to 514 same-sex twins (202 MZ, 294 DZ, 10 unknown zygosity) from the Western Reserve Reading Project (Petrill, Deater-Deckard, Thompson, DeThorne, & Schatschneider, 2006). Analyses focused on child and examiner measures of talkativeness, average utterance length, vocabulary diversity, and grammatical complexity from a fifteen-minute conversational exchange. Substantial genetic effects on children's conversational language measures replicated results from DeThorne et al. (2008) using an expanded sample. However, no familiality was reflected in the examiner language measures. Modest phenotypic correlations between child and examiner language measures suggested that differences in examiner language use may elicit differences in child language use, but evidence of evocative rGE in which genetic differences across children evoke differences in examiner language use, was not found. The discussion focuses on a comparison of findings to previous studies and implications for future research.

Genetic Effects on Children’s Conversational Language Use

The present study examined the extent of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in children's conversational language use. Behavioral genetic analyses focused on conversational measures and 2 standardized tests from 380 twins (M = 7.13 years) during the 2nd year of the Western Reserve Reading Project (S. A. Petrill, K. Deater-Deckard, L. A. Thompson, L. S. DeThorne, & C. Schatschneider, 2006) Multivariate analyses using latent factors were conducted to examine the extent of genetic overlap and specificity between conversational and formalized language. Multivariate analyses revealed a heritability of .70 for the conversational language factor and .45 for the formal language factor, with a significant genetic correlation of .37 between the two factors. Specific genetic effects were also significant for the conversational factor. The current study indicated that over half of the variance in children's conversational language skills can be accounted for by genetic effects with no evidence of significant shared environmental influence. This finding casts an alternative lens on past studies that have attributed differences in children's spontaneous language use to differences in environmental language exposure. In addition, multivariate results generally support the context-dependent construction of language knowledge, as suggested by the theory of activity and situated cognition (J. S. Brown, A. Collins, & P. Duguid, 1989; T. A. Ukrainetz, 1998), but also indicate some degree of overlap between language use in conversational and formalized assessment contexts.

Genetic Effects on Children’s Conversational Language Use

Genetic Effects on Children’s Conversational Language Use

Lexical mixing in the early productive vocabularies of Maltese children: Implications for intervention

Since norms for vocabulary acquisition in Maltese children do not yet exist, documentation of productive vocabulary acquisition may contribute to establishing a baseline of lexical development. Clinical implications may thus be derived. The current study is a small‐scale investigation of the proportions of Maltese and English lexemes in the vocabularies of ten normally‐developing Maltese children aged between 12 and 30 months. The participants were primarily exposed to Maltese within their immediate environments, while receiving indirect exposure to English. Outcomes of parental report and language sampling were analysed for evidence of a bilingual dimension in these children's productive vocabularies. Translation equivalents were reported on by parents, but negligible evidence of equivalents emerged in conversational language use. In contrast, lexical borrowings were both reported and sampled. A substantial proportion of English lexemes were reported by the parents in the absence of Maltese equivalents.

Establishing the Concurrent Validity of a Vocabulary Checklist for Young Maltese Children

Objective: The current literature highlights the research and clinical applications of parental report in investigating the status of language skills in young children. Since language acquisition norms for Maltese have not yet been established, this study attempts to obtain preliminary indications of developmental trends in early lexical development by adapting an established parent-completed vocabulary checklist for use with Maltese children. Patients and Methods: The concurrent validity of this bilingual adaptation was examined relative to picture naming abilities and spontaneous vocabulary use in a cross-sectional cohort of 10 children aged between 12 and 30 months who were primarily exposed to Maltese. Results: The results indicate a high and significant correlation between lexical production abilities as reported by parents completing the checklist and as measured through confrontation naming and conversational language use. Reported vocabulary measures indicate a steady increase in lexical production with age, with a sharp increment evident beyond the age of 24 months. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the preliminary version of the vocabulary checklist has potential for gauging early lexical growth and point towards the need for further research on a larger scale.

The unbearable lightness of being bilingual: English–Afrikaans language contact in South Africa

This paper discusses McCormick’s sociolinguistic study Language in Cape Town’s District Six [McCormick, K., 2003. Language in Cape Town’s District Six. Oxford University Press, Oxford] and locates it within the fields of South African sociolinguistics and language contact studies. McCormick’s work raises pertinent questions about sociolinguistic historiography, fieldwork methodology, bilingualism, (socio-)linguistic meaning, and the permeability of linguistic boundaries in language contact. McCormick approaches bilingual speech first and foremost from a code-switching perspective, broadly combining Myers-Scotton’s markedness model with conversation–analysis approaches (Gumperz/Auer). However, there is also evidence in the data that conversational language use in this bilingual working-class community can be interpreted within the framework of mixed languages and bilingual convergence. This raises important questions about norm formation and stabilization in language contact situations, and about the diachronic trajectories of bilingual speech.

Second Language Awareness: What For and For Whom?

Awareness about second language learning and use is a concern of second language learners as well as native speakers of the majority language. The need for awareness-raising among majority language speakers is, however, not generally acknowledged. Native speakers are often ignorant of important cognitive as well as sociocultural and affective aspects of second language learning, and underestimate the time and effort it takes to come to terms with another language and culture. Moreover, rather than acknowledging their own important role as the linguistically more competent speaker, they tend to put full responsibility for understanding on their second language interlocutor. For second language learners, critical awareness of how language is used in inter-ethnic commmunication outside the classroom and opportunities for language use in conversations with native speakers can prepare learners for more confident interaction with native speakers and prevent feelings of helplessness and frustration. Research has shown that many learners also benefit from developing metalinguistic awareness through conscious reflection about language form in collaborative activities. There is also evidence that adult learners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with limited formal schooling engage in complex metatalk which raises their awareness of language and empowers them as learners.