Conversational Repair Research Articles

Alternative questions used in conversational repair

This article adds to the conversation analytic literature on repair and on preference structure by examining a previously-undescribed otherinitiated repair practice, using the form of an alternative question, and the various actions that this practice is used to accomplish. Alternative question repair initiations can present alternate hearings or understandings of a prior utterance for clarification. They can also be used to initiate error correction by targeting a trouble source in a prior utterance with the first alternative and providing a candidate correction with the second. In the latter case, rejection of the candidate preference can be done as a dispreferred response. Recipients can make use of both turn design and context to interpret the actions being done through this form of repair.

Fanconi Anemia Complementation Group D2 (FANCD2) Functions Independently of BRCA2- and RAD51-associated Homologous Recombination in Response to DNA Damage

The BRCA2 breast cancer tumor suppressor is involved in the repair of double strand breaks and broken replication forks by homologous recombination through its interaction with DNA repair protein Rad51. Cells defective in BRCA2.FANCD1 are extremely sensitive to mitomycin C (MMC) similarly to cells deficient in any of the Fanconi anemia (FA) complementation group proteins (FANC). These observations suggest that the FA pathway and the BRCA2 and Rad51 repair pathway may be linked, although a functional connection between these pathways in DNA damage signaling remains to be determined. Here, we systematically investigated the interaction between these pathways. We show that in response to DNA damage, BRCA2-dependent Rad51 nuclear focus formation was normal in the absence of FANCD2 and that FANCD2 nuclear focus formation and mono-ubiquitination appeared normal in BRCA2-deficient cells. We report that the absence of BRCA2 substantially reduced homologous recombination repair of DNA breaks, whereas the absence of FANCD2 had little effect. Furthermore, we established that depletion of BRCA2 or Rad51 had a greater effect on cell survival in response to MMC than depletion of FANCD2 and that depletion of BRCA2 in FANCD2 mutant cells further sensitized these cells to MMC. Our results suggest that FANCD2 mediates double strand DNA break repair independently of Rad51-associated homologous recombination.

Peer-Mediated Conversational Repair in Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

Conversation skills are critical to learning and the development of social relationships. Some students with severe disabilities have a difficult time conversing with their nondisabled classmates because of their unintelligible verbalizations or an inability to correct or repair a message that may have been misunderstood by their conversational partner. For intervention purposes, extant literature strongly suggests that typical similar-age peers are effective change agents. In a study using a multiple baseline design with generalization probes, nine typical peers were taught to request repairs in response to unintelligible verbalizations. Three peers were assigned to each of the three target students. Teaching peers to request repair resulted in increased repaired messages and frequency of turns taken during conversation.

The relevance of repair for classroom correction

This article attempts to align a familiar task of classroom teaching, eliciting from students correct answers about their lessons, with a major organizational domain in studies of natural conversation, that of conversational repair. Numerous studies have analyzed correction sequences in classroom discourse, and our discussion pays special attention to McHoul's (1990) treatment of “repair in classroom talk.” McHoul directly measures the findings on repair in studies of natural conversation to the regularities of correction sequences in classroom lessons. It is argued, contra McHoul, that repair is a different, and prior, order of discursive work, and one that premises the very possibility of classroom correction. Further, the difference may have wider relevance for understanding repair and correction as “co-operating” organizations of talk-in-interaction more generally.

The evaluation of a learner‐centred training programme for spouses of adults with chronic aphasia using qualitative case study methodology

Background: Family education, training, and counselling programmes have been cited as one way to complement traditional interventions for the individual with aphasia. However, the literature still represents the speech‐language pathologist as the expert in a directive role.Aims: This article describes the second phase of a research study aimed at addressing the psychosocial sequelae of aphasia by developing and studying the effects of a learner‐centred training programme for spouses of adults with chronic aphasia designed to improve conversational interaction between couples. The first phase of this research included the development of a communication‐training programme that integrated principles and strategies from speech‐language pathology and adult education (Sorin‐Peters, 2002). The second phase described in this paper included the delivery and evaluation of the programme using a qualitative case study methodology. The use of the qualitative case study methodology to study the psychosocial consequences of aphasia is described in a companion paper (Sorin‐Peters, 2004). This paper presents the results of one qualitative case study in detail to demonstrate how the qualitative case study methodology was implemented, and a summary of the cross‐case analysis for the five couples, examining the effectiveness of the programme.Methods & Procedures: Using videotaped data, the Couple Questionnaire, and a semi‐structured interview, this study examined changes in attitudes and communication behaviours in five couples immediately after conversation partner training and at 2 months follow‐up. All data were transcribed and analysed for patterns of change.Outcomes & Results: Communication outcomes included changes in conversational interaction as well as in the transaction of information in conversation for all five couples. These included positive changes in the management of conversational repair. There was more balanced control after training and the cognitive competence of the partners with aphasia was revealed following the training. In addition, different conversational genres emerged throughout the programme that could be organised hierarchically. Results indicated ways in which the adult learning principles were actualised across the five cases. Themes emerged related to the expression of emotion about aphasia, including feelings of anger, sadness, and grief, and increased acceptance of the aphasia after the training. Themes related to marital issues emerged and were intertwined with emotions and communication.Conclusions: The adult learning model approach promoted positive and comprehensive changes, and perhaps more than those achieved via existing medical‐model or psychosocial approaches. The adult learning approach to individuals with chronic aphasia extends the existing psychosocial model by acknowledging both the spouse's and person with aphasia's competence as adult learners, by viewing the person with aphasia not only as part of a social unit, including the family, but also as part of a broader system, including multiple environmental and cultural factors that interact interdependently to effect change, and by focusing on the importance of communication for the expression of emotions and the maintenance and development of marital relations. The results suggest the benefits of the expansion of the speech‐language pathologist's role with couples with aphasia to include an adult learning approach to improving conversational interaction between people with aphasia and their spouses.

Conversation Repair and Acquired Hearing Impairment: A Preliminary Quantitative Clinical Study

This report provides a quantitative summary of the initial findings in a series of investigations into the validity and reliability of repair behaviour recorded in free conversation in clinical settings between adults who have acquired hearing impairments (HIs) and their frequent communication partners (FCPs). Seven adults who have severe or greater acquired HIs (and who had subsequently been either fitted with hearing aids or undergone cochlear implantation) were audio-recorded undertaking a 20-minute free conversation in a quiet clinical setting with their chosen FCP. Transcriptions of the conversations were analysed for the occurrence of repair sequences following the Conversation Analysis (CA) model. A total of 735 completed repair sequences were identified across the seven conversations, the majority occurring within the same turn as the trouble source. No difference was noted in the frequency with which all but one trajectory was initiated by either the HI or FCP participants. Repairs initiated by the HI participant and repaired by the FCP in response to a trouble source in a previous turn by the FCP occurred significantly more often than the same sequence initiated by the FCPs. The results emphasise the usefulness of framing repair activity arising from acquired HI in the broader conversational act of repairing and the CA model.

Conversational repair in speakers with autism spectrum disorder.

The ability to repair communicative breakdown is an important pragmatic language skill, yet very little is known about it in the population of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous investigations have shown that people with ASD, across a variety of ages and language levels, recognized communicative breakdown and responded to requests for clarification (RQCLs) with a wide variety of repair strategies. No previous work has assessed the repair abilities of speakers with ASD when faced with a persistent communicative breakdown indicated by a stacked series of RQCLs. The present paper aimed to determine whether school-aged, high-functioning children with ASD responded to a stacked series of RQCLs in a way similar to children matched for language age. Nine school-aged, high-functioning children with ASD were recruited and matched to nine control group children based on language level. During conversation, an unfamiliar examiner engineered 10 episodes of communicative breakdown. Each consisted of a stacked series of three RQCLs ('What?', 'I don't understand', 'Tell me another way'). Verbal and non-verbal responses to each RQCL were coded. Responses were analysed by a series of repeated measures analyses of variance with diagnostic group and RQCL type/position as independent variables and type of repair as the dependent variable. Children with ASD were similar to language age-matched control children in responding to RQCLs and employing a variety of repair strategies. In addition, their pattern of responding over the series of RQCLs was very similar to the controls in varying the repair strategy by adding increasingly more information as the breakdown persisted, i.e. as the sequence of RQCLs progressed. Children with ASD, however, were significantly more likely than language age-matched controls to respond to an RQCL with an inappropriate response. The ability to repair communicative breakdown successfully raises questions about some of the currently popular theories about the source and nature of social and communicative deficits in autism. In addition, the presence of significantly more inappropriate utterances in the group with ASD poses both theoretical and clinical challenges. In theoretical terms, several possible explanations are proposed, but future work will need to test these hypotheses. Clinically, it is important to focus on utterances that disrupt the conversational flow and that generate severe social penalties for the speaker with ASD.

Conversational Repair as a Role‐Defining Mechanism in Classroom Interaction

This article is concerned with the ways in which the students and the teacher in a content‐based German as a foreign language class used repair in order to negotiate meaning and form in their classroom. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, we discuss how repair in this institutional setting differed from repair in mundane conversation and how repair was used differently by the students and the teacher. Given that students and the teacher were all competent speakers of both the first language (L1) and the second language (L2), we found that these differences were not merely indications of incomplete L2 usage. Instead, they manifested how the students and the teacher enacted and perceived their respective roles within the classroom and, based on role concepts, demonstrated different access to repair as a resource. The analysis shows that repair is a resource for modified output as well as modified input in classroom settings.

Classifying Student Initiatives and Tutor Responses in Human Keyboard-to-Keyboard Tutoring Sessions

This study analyzed twenty-eight 1-hr-long tutoring sessions that were carried out keyboard-to-keyboard with tutor and student in different rooms. The tutors were professors of physiology at Rush Medical College. The students were 1st-year medical students. We classified student initiatives and tutor responses in human tutoring sessions with the goal of making our intelligent tutoring system capable of handling mixed-initiative dialogue. Student initiatives were classified along 4 dimensions: communicative goal, surface form, focus of attention, and degree of certainty (i.e., does the student hedge or not?). Student goals included request for confirmation, request for information, challenge, refusal to answer, and conversational repair. Tutor responses were classified along 3 dimensions: communicative goal, surface form, and delivery mode. The tutor goals included causal explanation, acknowledgment, conversational repair, instruction in the rules of the game, teaching the problem-solving algorithm, and teaching the language of physiology. Our interrater reliability studies supported these categories in the domain of tutoring.

Conversation patterns of three adults using aided speech: variations across partners

This exploratory study describes the conversation patterns of three aided speakers and their communication partners and focuses on the question of whether patterns vary across different types of partners. The aided speakers were videotaped engaging in unstructured conversation with both a natural speaker and another aided speaker. Comparisons of conversation patterns were made across the two types of conversation dyads. The study explores several questions relating to conversational control, including (a) who introduces topics of conversation, (b) whether partners are equally likely to make conversational contributions, (c) whether summoning power is distributed equally, and (d) what proportion of the interactions are devoted to conversation repair, as opposed to topic development and other conversation maintenance functions. The findings suggest that patterns varied markedly across the two types of conversation dyads and that conversations between the aided speakers were noticeably more symmetric and less likely to require repair. Implications are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

Conversational Repair in Pediatric Epilepsy

This study examined if children with complex partial seizures disorder (CPS) and primary generalized epilepsy with absence (PGE) were impaired in the use of self-initiated repair during a conversation compared to normal children. Transcriptions of speech samples of 92 CPS, 51 PGE, and 65 normal children, ages 5–16 years, were coded for self-initiated repair according to Evans (1985). The WISC-R, a structured psychiatric interview, and seizure-related information were obtained for each child. We found impaired use of repair in both the CPS and PGE groups compared to the normal subjects. The CPS patients, particularly those with a temporal lobe focus, overused self-initiated corrections of referents and syntax compared to the PGE and normal subjects. The CPS and PGE patients with frontal lobe involvement underused fillers compared to the normal children. These findings provide additional evidence that both CPS and PGE impact the ongoing development of children's communication skills.

Repair of double-strand breaks by homologous recombination in mismatch repair-defective mammalian cells.

Chromosomal double-strand breaks (DSBs) stimulate homologous recombination by several orders of magnitude in mammalian cells, including murine embryonic stem (ES) cells, but the efficiency of recombination decreases as the heterology between the repair substrates increases (B. Elliott, C. Richardson, J. Winderbaum, J. A. Nickoloff, and M. Jasin, Mol. Cell. Biol. 18:93-101, 1998). We have now examined homologous recombination in mismatch repair (MMR)-defective ES cells to investigate both the frequency of recombination and the outcome of events. Using cells with a targeted mutation in the msh2 gene, we found that the barrier to recombination between diverged substrates is relaxed for both gene targeting and intrachromosomal recombination. Thus, substrates with 1.5% divergence are 10-fold more likely to undergo DSB-promoted recombination in Msh2(-/-) cells than in wild-type cells. Although mutant cells can repair DSBs efficiently, examination of gene conversion tracts in recombinants demonstrates that they cannot efficiently correct mismatched heteroduplex DNA (hDNA) that is formed adjacent to the DSB. As a result, >20-fold more of the recombinants derived from mutant cells have uncorrected tracts compared with recombinants from wild-type cells. The results indicate that gene conversion repair of DSBs in mammalian cells frequently involves mismatch correction of hDNA rather than double-strand gap formation. In cells with MMR defects, therefore, aberrant recombinational repair may be an additional mechanism that contributes to genomic instability and possibly tumorigenesis.

Conversational repair in spoken Hong Kong Cantonese

This paper examines the process and mechanism of conversational repair in spoken Hong Kong Cantonese. Levelt calls for accounts of conversational repair from diverse languages; this paper helps test his supposition that “the organization of repair is quite invariant across languages and cultures” (1989: 497). The paper also raises the hypothesis that personal and contextual factors are crucial variables which determine which type of repair will be socially acceptable (and therefore prominent) in a particular conversational setting.

Delayed next turn repair initiation in native/non-native speaker English conversation

Prior research on repair in everyday conversation has shown that efforts directed at problems in hearing or understanding by someone other than the speaker of the trouble-source utterance are initiated in one main sequential environment: next turn relative to the trouble-source utterance (Schegloff et al. 1977). Here I examine a form of other-initiated repair which is delayed within next turn position, a form which is produced by non-native speakers of English (NNs) whose native language is Mandarin. Using the framework of conversation analysis (CA), I show that in native/non-native conversation (N-NN), other-initiated repair is not always done as 'early' as possible or what is 'possible' is markedly different. Nonetheless, the instances reported herein indirectly support the claim that the primary site of other-initiated repair is in the next turn relative to the trouble-source talk (Schegloff et al. 1977). In creating and recreating a sense of what is socially shared between them, native and non-native speakers in engagement with one another may orient to a greater potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding and work towards efforts, as displayed in the 'oral practice' (Hall 1993) of delayed NTRI, which aim at averting, avoiding, or correcting miscommunication and misunderstanding in the talk. CA may provide a sound foundation for the study of interaction in SLA, because it is based on those features of the context which are relevant for the participants

Exploring conversation analysis as an assessment tool for aphasia: the issue of reliability

This paper describes an investigation of the temporal reliability of analyses of collaborative repair in aphasic conversation. Whilst it has been proposed that conversation analysis has a useful contribution to make to the assessment of aphasia, assessment methods which use natural interaction as a basis for analysis have been assumed to lack reliability because of variability in conversation in contrast to the standardization across assessments possible with formal assessments. This issue was addressed through comparison of quantitative and qualitative analyses of collaborative repair in dyadic conversations recorded on four different occasions between eight people with aphasia and their relatives. Quantitative results revealed significant within-participant variation in the quantity of collaborative repair occurring in the conversations but between-participant variation was of much greater magnitude. The findings of the qualitative analysis indicated reliability in the interactional challenges experienced as a consequence of aphasia, with consistency in the nature of trouble sources giving rise to collaborative repair work across the participants four conversations. The findings also indicated reliability in the interactional mechanisms employed to deal with trouble sources, with consistency across the participants four conversations in the resolution of collaborative repair. The implications of the findingsfor the use of conversation analysis as an assessment tool to motivate intervention and to measure change over time are discussed.

Repair sequences in aphasic talk: a comparison of aphasic-speech and language therapist and aphasic-spouse conversations

The phenomena discussed in this paper emerged from a study that examined the talk of two aphasic-speech and language therapist (SLT) and two aphasic-spouse partnerships. In the aphasic-spouse conversations there was a pattern in which, following an 'error in the aphasic person s spoken output, the partnership engaged in a collaborative revision of aphasic production. These revision sequences explicitly brought repair to the conversational surface and were unusual in their extension of repair beyond the point where the target became known. Whilst opportunities for revision existed in the aphasic-SLT talk, the SLTs reluctance to model production helped to ensure that similar sequences did not occur in these conversations. A wider review of repair phenomena revealed that whilst the SLTs worked to minimize the interactive consequences of aphasic troubles in talk, spouses played a part in exposing and prolongingrepair. Possible reasons for different patterns of repair in aphasic-SLT and aphasic-spouse conversations are discussed, as are some clinical implications of these findings.

An analysis of trouble and repair in the natural conversations of people with dementia of the Alzheimer's type

Conversational Analysis CA is increasingly being used to examine the conversations of people with neurogenic language disorders because it allows for the description of how trouble in a conversation is signalled, how it is repaired and to what extent these conversational repairs are successful. The present study has used CA to investigate the frequency and nature of trouble and repair in conversations between persons with Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer s Type SDAT and their communication partners. The study recorded spontaneous conversations between 10 subjects with SDAT and 10 control subjects all unfamiliar to the SDAT subject. The conversations were audiotaped and later transcribed and analysed according to type of Trouble Indicating Behaviour (12), pattern of Repair Trajectory (6), specific Repair Types (7), and whether or not the repair was successful. The results of the study revealed that the normal partners used a high proportionof interactive trouble indicating behaviours to signal a breakdown in the conversation. Whereas indicating trouble in a conversationwas more an interactive enterprise between the two conversational partners, the normal partner assumed a greater burden when negotiating the repair sequence. Paraphrasing was an e ective repair strategy used by the normal partners. The subjects with SDAT, however, used more non interactive trouble indicating behaviours reflecting topic main tenance and elaboration difficulty that contributed to conversational dysfluency and discontinuity. There were more instances of inappropriate repair by the SDAT subjects that were sometimes accepted by the normal partner in an attempt to preserve the self esteem of the subject with SDAT and or to maintain the flow of conversation. The study's findings highlighted the potential usefulness of CA in recommending communication strategies to the partners of individuals with SDAT that are e ective in signalling and repairing conversational breakdown.

Some aspects of repair in native and non-native speaker conversations in English

Abstract The ability to carry out repairs is a key skill in spoken discourse for non-native speakers of English and has been widely studied. However, VAN HEST et al. (1997) have suggested that investigations into repair in L2 need to be more theoretically driven and less concerned with individual differences. Drawing on information from a pilot study of twenty-three conversations, lasting 185 minutes between six native and six non-native speakers, this paper argues that there is no conflict between a concern with individual differences and theory building. What is needed is a contextualised theory which is grounded in particular situations and individual differences. The paper identifies three possible areas of difficulty that may arise if a theory is not contextualised. Firstly, the paper argues that theory driven research encourages methods of data collection that we characterise as experimental and suggest that these need to be supplemented by more naturalistic forms of data collection. Secondly, the paper criticises the view that there are general preferences as to who initiates and who completes repairs and argues that a contextualised theory of repair would capture initiation/completion patterns more adequately. Finally, the paper argues that the distinction between native and non-native speakers needs to be re-examined. This is supported by the finding in the pilot study that there was little variation between native and non-native speakers in terms of these analyses.

Conversational turn-taking and repair in fluent aphasia

This study replicated and extended the previous investigation of conversational turn-taking in fluent aphasia by Schienberg and Holland. The present study analysed a series of casual conversations which were videotaped between two fluent aphasic speakers talking with each other, and with non-aphasic partners who varied with regard to clinical experience with aphasia and personal familiarity with the aphasic speakers. Analysis was based on transcription and examined general aspects of turn-taking, as well as turn allocation techniques and their success, with results being compared with those presented by Schienberg and Holland. Additionally, repair trajectories and their acceptance were analysed for each dyad. Results supported Schienberg and Holland's previous findings and conclusions with regard to the relative preservation of communicative competence in aphasia. Additionally, results suggest that measures of turn-taking allocation showed no effect of the familiarity of the partners. For some individuals, it was suggested that turn-taking techniques might be consistent across occasions of sampling, so long as the role relationship remains constant. Measures of repair showed no effect of familiarity, and varied across occasions of sampling.

Conversational discourse analysis: Appropriate and useful sample sizes

The time required to transcribe and analyse lengthy conversation puts conversational discourse analysis (CDA) out of reach for most practising clinicians. However, standards have not been established for appropriate conversation sample size. Data are presented supporting the use of conversation samples of 5–10 minutes when studying conversation repair, speaking rate, and utterance length. Ten minute samples adequately represented ‘parent’ conversations from which they were derived when measuring conversation repair for six of eight cases. For measuring speaking efficiency (length of utterance and speaking rate) 5 minutes was adequate for all eight cases. For variables occurring once per minute, 10 minute samples were adequate, and for variables occurring three times per minute, 5 minute samples were adequate.