Small Talk Research Articles

‘There’s a lot less time on small talk’: Rural patient perspectives on shifting to technology-enabled healthcare in Canada during COVID-19

The objective of this qualitative research study was to explore system, provider, and patient level factors from the perspective of rural-living citizens in Canada and how these factors influenced their telehealth experiences. Participants were recruited in follow-up to an online survey which asked for interest in participation in focus groups to talk about telehealth experiences. Twenty-two rural citizens participated in one of five focus groups. The qualitative data from the focus groups were thematically analyzed. The overarching theme that described rural participants’ experiences of telehealth during the pandemic was navigating the shifting care model. Two main themes were constructed from the data: shifts in the patient-provider relationship and mismatch between the telehealth requirements and provider and system support. Relational shifts involved a transactional or business-like relationship with their providers, that was reflected in changes in etiquette practices, personalization of care, and communication dynamics. Mismatch in telehealth system requirements and support was reflected in shifting personal and infrastructure technology requirements, blurred boundaries of health data access and privacy, and shifting appointment logistics. Continued use and expansion of technology-enabled healthcare must consider patient perspectives.

Perceived Conversation Quality in Spontaneous Interactions

The quality of daily spontaneous conversations is of importance towards both our well-being as well as the development of interactive social agents. Prior research directly studying the quality of social conversations has operationalized it in narrow terms, associating greater quality to less small talk. Other works taking a broader perspective of interaction experience have indirectly studied quality through one of the several overlapping constructs such as rapport or engagement, in isolation. In this work we bridge this gap by proposing a holistic conceptualization of conversation quality, building upon the collaborative attributes of cooperative conversation floors. Taking a multilevel perspective of conversation, we develop and validate two instruments for perceived conversation quality (PCQ) at the individual and group levels. Specifically, we motivate capturing external raters' gestalt impressions of participant experiences from thin slices of behavior, and collect annotations of PCQ on the publicly available MatchNMingle dataset of in-the-wild mingling conversations. Finally, we present an analysis of behavioral features that are predictive of PCQ. We find that for the conversations in MatchNMingle, raters tend to associate smaller group sizes, equitable speaking turns with fewer interruptions, and time taken for synchronous bodily coordination with higher PCQ.

Socializing amongst students - an investigation of small talk phenomenon from the perspective of female university students

Socializing amongst students - an investigation of small talk phenomenon from the perspective of female university students

Development of interactional practices for initiating and extending small talk in service encounters

Research indicates the importance of small talk in achieving professional goals and promoting social relationships in workplaces, and yet second-language (L2) users often face challenges in participating in small talk. As such, the need for teaching small talk has been emphasized; however, the understanding of how L2 interactional practices for small talk develop remains limited. This study aims to demonstrate the change in L2 English practices used for initiating and extending small talk that occurred during service encounters over a thirty-month period. The data were gathered from 74 h of audiovisual recordings of service encounters at a small convenience store in Hawai'i. The focal participant is the service provider, a Korean adult with limited L2 English proficiency, who had emigrated from South Korea a year before the start of the data collection. By employing multimodal conversation analysis (CA) and the Pearson's chi-square test, the results of the study demonstrated three aspects of change in the service provider's practices for small talk: increasing the frequency of initiations, emerging new methods for initiation, and developing expansion techniques for small-talk sequences. The study advances the understanding of the development of multimodal L2 interactional practices for small talk in service encounters.

Athlete and coach’s perspectives on sports nutritionists’ role in enhancing sports performance in Indonesia Sports Training Centers

The role of a nutritionist as a sportsman was a legal mandate listed on Law No. 3 of 2005 in Article 63 concerning the National Sports System, stated that nutritionists are one of the sports personnel. However, the implementation of the nutritionist's role in the athlete training center was still lacking. The importance of nutritionist existence ought to be assessed to explore the perception of athletes and coaches. Qualitative approach was used to analyze focus group discussions on 15 athletes and 10 coaches located in 3 cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Malang). Results, the acceptance of the food in the training center are satisfactory even though some still eat out. More knowledge concerning nutrition, performance, and posture are obtained from in-class education, brochure, personal counselling, and small talk by the presence of nutritionists. Conclusion, athletes and coaches perceive that nutritionists are urgently necessary for optimum nutrition support to enhance sports performance.

"I Just Want You to Hear That Term": Characterizing Language Used in Fetal Cardiology Consultations.

The way clinicians communicate with parents during pregnancy about congenital heart disease (CHD) can significantly influence parental understanding of and psychological response to the diagnosis. A necessary first step to improving communication used in fetal cardiology consultations is to understand and describe the language currently used, which this paper aims to do. Nineteen initial fetal cardiology consultations with parents were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded by two independent coders. A codebook was inductively developed and applied to all transcripts. The finalized coding was used to characterize fetal cardiologists' language. We identified four discourse styles employed in fetal cardiology consultations: small talk, medical, plain, and person-centered. Plain language was used to define and emphasize the meaning of medical language. Person-centered language was used to emphasize the baby as a whole person. Each consultation included all four discourse styles, with plain and medical used most frequently. Person-centered was used less frequently and mostly occurred near the end of the encounters; whether this is the ideal balance of discourse styles is unknown. Clinicians also used person-centered language (as opposed to disease-centered language), which is recommended by medical societies. Future studies should investigate the ideal balance of discourse styles and the effects of clinician discourse styles on family outcomes, including parents' decision-making, psychological adjustment, and quality of life.

Small Talk in English and Chinese – A contrastive case study

AbstractIn this paper, we present a contrastive pragmatic analysis of Small Talk in English and Chinese. We use a radically minimal, finite and interactional system of speech acts to study DCTs conducted with U.S. American native speakers of English and native speakers of Chinese. Our analysis points to a number of important differences between Small Talk in the two linguacultures contrasted, such as a reliance on routines in English Small Talk, and an overall reliance on the speech act Remark in Chinese. The influence of the classic sociolinguistic variables Power and Social Distance for the enactment of Small Talk is also shown to be different in English and Chinese.

TINDAK TUTUR ILOKUSI DALAM ACARA GOYANG JEMBER DI RADIO PROSALINA FM

This research aims to describe the illocutionary speech acts performed between the announcer and callers in the "Goyang Jember" (Gober) program. This research is expected to be beneficial in understanding the factors that cause a mass media program to have many followers, particularly in terms of language aspects. This research falls under the category of qualitative descriptive research. The research data consists of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences uttered by the announcer and 20 different callers. The data source for this research is taken from the conversations between the announcer and callers in September 2022, which were uploaded on the Prosalina FM YouTube account. The data collection stage uses the observation method with the technique of non-participant observation and note-taking. The data analysis stage employs the pragmatic equivalence method. Based on the results of the data analysis, it was found that the conversations between the announcer and callers contain five types of illocutionary speech acts, namely assertive, directive, expressive, commissive, and declarative. The most dominant speech act is the assertive speech act. This is because Gober is a relaxed program that allows listeners to have casual conversations or small talk with the announcer through phone calls. The declarative speech act is the least frequently used. The other forms of speech acts are quite often used as variations in the discourse to make the conversation warm, more friendly, maintain politeness, create a pleasant atmosphere, and avoid boredom.

Folk conceptualisation of small talk: A view from a Japanese online discussion forum

AbstractThe study explores the perceptions of small talk shared by the users of a Japanese online community, seeking information on their expected speech and behaviour in small talk and factors contributing to positive/negative evaluations of small talk. The study investigates a discussion thread consisting of 73 responses to a contributor's request for advice on improving small talk capabilities from the perspectives of interaction ritual (Goffman 1967), balancing obligations (Ohashi 2008, 2013, 2021) and typology of speech acts (Edmondson & House 1981; House & Kádár 2022b).

Small Talk, Should We Avoid? Linking it to Tacit Knowledge Sharing

Small Talk, Should We Avoid? Linking it to Tacit Knowledge Sharing

Glimpses from the past: Michael Wertheimer dead at 95.

Michael was a historian by choice and calling, well-known for his Brief History of Psychology, which appeared in six editions. He also edited with Gregory Kimble a seven-volume series of Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, an essential resource describing many of the illustrious ancestors of contemporary psychology. He was known for his long service to various professional associations, especially the APA. He was president of four APA divisions: 1 (General Psychology), 2 (Teaching of Psychology), 24 (Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology), and 26 (History of Psychology). These commitments show his extraordinary social conscience. In the Psychology Department at CU Boulder, he was highly respected for his superior knowledge and quick curiosity, but also feared for his critical questions and comments. Michael was not one to socialize with and enjoy small talk the way most of us do. Rather, his conversations were brief, to the point, and strictly academic. However, the author also learnt that behind his formal and reserved outward appearance, there was a charming, humorous, and cheerful Mensch. But most of all he was a scholar of universal knowledge, rare passion, and exemplary devotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Low-loss and broadband polarization-diversity edge coupler on a thin-film lithium niobate platform.

Fiber-to-chip coupling is an essential issue for taking high-performance integrated photonic devices into practical applications. On a thin-film lithium niobate platform, such a high-performance coupler featuring low loss, large bandwidth, and polarization independence is highly desired. However, the mode hybridization induced by the birefringence of lithium niobate seriously restricts a polarization-independent coupling. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a high-performance and polarization-diversity cantilever edge coupler (EC) with the assistance of a two-stage polarization splitter and rotator (PSR). The fabricated cantilever EC shows a minimal coupling loss of 1.06 dB/facet, and the fully etched PSR structure shows a low insertion loss (IL) of -0.62 dB. The whole polarization-diversity cantilever EC exhibits a low IL of -2.17 dB and -1.68 dB for TE0 and TM0 mode, respectively, as well as a small cross talk of <-15 dB covering the wavelength band from 1.5 µm to 1.6 µm. A polarization-dependent loss <0.5 dB over the same wavelength band is also obtained. The proposed fiber-to-waveguide coupler, compatible with the fabrication process of popular thin-film lithium niobate photonic devices, can work as a coupling scheme for on-chip polarization-diversity applications.

Experiences of post-secondary students during COVID-19 pandemic: A focus group study

Background: Despite emerging knowledge on the pandemic’s impact, first-hand experiences of post-secondary students are not well understood. Focus groups were conducted with students to elicit their perspectives on the changes in their life routines, learning and coping. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted with 37 undergraduate students enrolled in a Canadian university. The transcribed discussions were thematically analyzed using the constant comparison technique. Results: While overall pandemic experience was mostly negative, five dominant themes emerged. Students experienced Disrupted Routines and discussed wellness and health changes (physical activity, sleep, diet) and its negative impact on their online learning due to lose of differentiation of time and space. They discussed Online Learning as having both pros (e.g., save commute time/cost, balance employment-study) and cons (e.g., technical issues, lack of interactive-learning, home distractions, screen-time increase, concentration/ motivation difficulties). Students used various strategies to overcome challenges (e.g., better technology, efficient schedules, Zoom libraries, WhatsApp groups). In terms of Mental Stress and Coping, they experienced emotional turmoil whereby feelings ranged from worries, uncertainties, fears, hopelessness, loss of motivation, anxiety, low mood, and helplessness along with caregiving-burden in some instances. The discussion on coping centred on positive (e.g., exercise, prayers, limiting social-media use, fun-activities) and some negative (e.g., more alcohol, smoking, online shopping) behaviors. The Social Connectedness theme revealed feelings of social isolation with a concurrent increase in use of social media and family-bonding opportunities. A few changes in everyday conversations were discussed: more empathy in small talks for some but lose-of-comfort in communicating with unfamiliar people for others. Student discussion on Institutional Response focused on financial supports, mental health resources, and online learning supports. Conclusion: Post-secondary students faced many stressors during the pandemic and used multiple ways to cope. The gained insights should inform development of programs at academic institutions and government support initiatives.

Phatic Communication in Online English Class Discussions through Facebook Comments

Phatic communication refers to small talks that aim to form ties of personal union between people or the speakers. Especially in this digital age, phatic communication is somehow still used. This research aims to uncover the kinds and functions of phatic communication used by Indonesian students who have been doing online classes through Facebook, responding to their classmates’ material presentations, and having discussions in the comment column. This current study employs the qualitative method with the document analysis technique. The data of this recent study is the phatic communication used by students during the online course through Facebook, and the data was examined through document analysis techniques from the students’ Facebook comments activity in the form of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences related to phatic expressions. Moreover, the data was analyzed through the following steps: 1) labeling the related data; 2) classifying the data into its types and functions; 3) interpreting the data findings; and 4) drawing conclusions. The study’s main finding is the appearance of phatic expressions, for instance, greeting, thankfulness, compliment, apology, encouragement, and wishing to each other. As the typical conversation is made online through social media platforms such as Facebook, we suggest that some language or conversation styles like abbreviations, non-standard spelling, and emojis have also appeared.

Adjective Phrases in Initial Burst of Small Talk Influence Purchasing Decisions?

This work aims to analyze the influence of adjective phrases in small talk on the purchasing decision in the Badung traditional market. Data were analyzed using measures adapted from Creswell (2007). In analyzing the data is based on the small talk classification of apologies, condole, congratulate, greet, thanks, bid, accept, and reject speech functions. As a result, most of the sellers in the Badung traditional market did not use adjective phrases in small talk to influence purchasing decisions. They have various strategies to greet and influence the buyer in small talk. In small talk, sellers and buyers can make negotiations and change purchasing decisions. During the data analysis, the researcher concluded that in doing small talk, the speaker must ensure that the interlocutor understands every utterance conveyed. Thus, there is a clear understanding. The conclusion is small talk does not only function as a greeting but also as a tool to create an ongoing communication relationship.

노인요양시설 이용자의 존엄한 죽음에 대한 요양보호사의 경험연구

This study aimed to analyze and interpret the meaning of dignified death for the elderly in nursing homes using phenomenological techniques for caregivers' experiences of caring practices. Two in-depth interviews were conducted with five caregivers who had worked in nursing homes for more than five years. Data were analyzed with the four stages of Giorgi's phenomenological qualitative research method. After analyzing the data, 25 meaning units, 6 sub-components, and 3 components were derived: 1) embracing death with love, with sub-components of ‘staring at death that was turned away’ and ‘facing the death of the elderly’; 2) finding meaning in the void, with sub-components of ‘experiencing the infinite in finite existence’ and ‘finding meaning that endures meaninglessness’; and 3) writing my history book in the present, with sub-components of ‘summoning the past buried in small talk’ and ‘performing a ritual of self-renewal’. This study concludes that the meaning and essence of the experience of dignified death for the elderly by caregivers who perform care work for the elderly in nursing homes are to provide opportunities for enjoyment and communication in the midst of daily life in nursing homes, to relieve the loneliness of the elderly, and to help the elderly feel satisfied with their lives in the closest place.

Wealth Metaphors in Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money Introduction Section

This study aims to identify wealth metaphors in Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money introduction section. Conceptual metaphor is a concept of an abstract entity drawn in that of a concrete concept to provide a better understanding (Lakoff &amp; Johnson, 1980). Moreover, metaphors are used widely in human everyday life, for instance in movies, literary works, and even small talk. The data were collected utilizing a corpus-based method with the help of tools including WordNet, TRIPS Word Lookup, and AntConc. To analyze the data, the relevance theory by Carston was used in determining metaphorical expression (Carston, 2011) from wealth-related utterances. Additionally, the source domains and the mappings were executed by looking into the co-text of each metaphorical expression. Finally, the wealth metaphors were concluded according to the mappings. The study result shows thirty-six metaphorical expressions found in the introduction section of The Psychology of Money, which were subsequently categorized into smaller groups constructing five wealth metaphors. The source domains are laboratory, school, competition, euphoria, and nature, with wealth as the target domain. To end with, it is recommended that further researchers dig deeper into conceptual metaphors of crucial aspects of human life through a complete work beyond the book’s introduction.

Small talk across Englishes: A focus on Namibia

The present paper examines the use of English in Namibia focussed on one particular type of social situation, namely small talk with a stranger at a party. The analysis concentrates on the opening turns-at-talk and contrasts Namibian English to previously analysed native and learner varieties of the English language, specifically English English, Irish English, American English, Canadian English, and German English. This paper thus contributes to research in variational pragmatics comparing national varieties of the same language. More particularly, the present study reveals a range of variety-preferential patterns for Namibian English and thus contributes to establishing a pragmatic profile of English in Namibia.

Learning to Listen.

I felt a small thrill looking at the rows of short, starched coats beside me. “Keep your white coat thin so patients' stories may touch you,” instructed our welcome to medical school speaker. It was a thoughtful sentiment, but not one that particularly resonated with me at the time.And so, I progressed. From preclinical, to clinical, to residency training, I examined, prescribed, and sutured. But mostly, I listened. Increasingly, the symptoms and how they fit into diagnostic and treatment flow charts clicked neatly into place. Each specialty had its bread-and-butter complaints. My efficiency improved alongside my clinical confidence. And, I admit, the stories became more opaque. The person behind the pelvic pain in a 20-minute patient visit became quieter. I needed to collect information and focus so that I could triage, diagnose, and implement. I began practicing with an agenda, one that was well-intentioned, borne from time constraints. Lost in what was becoming routine, I slowly drifted away from the patient's experience.Then I had a patient with a surgical complication. An expected one, one specified in the consent form. But it haunted me. She haunted me. Weeks turned to months, and I found myself still waking early, thinking about her. As my husband dozed on next to me, I wondered what it might be like to manage spreadsheets rather than organs. I thought a lot about harm, consent, the risks of surgery. And about surgical training. About the lights so bright in the OR. About the attending who snapped when I wasn't prepping the patient quickly enough. About when I was frozen holding a foley, focused on managing an overwhelming panic about complications that could happen. I thought about the patient's tattoos, the small talk we had made before starting the case. Each time in the OR I wondered when I might harm. I did harm.How do you face yourself in the mirror when you know you have harmed someone? Can I trust myself again? Can others trust me? The next time I performed that same surgery, I pretended that the complication had never happened. Afterward I went to a call room and laid my head against the door, and closed my eyes. I obsessed over her postoperative course, hovering over vitals and hemoglobins.I became hypervigilant. I listened with renewed intensity, eager to not miss problems, eager to fix. I operated with fresh eyes and practiced more. I took more time with my patients and learned more about them. I thought more about how symptoms affected their lives. I thought more about how a surgery recovery would affect their work schedules. I thought about trying to breastfeed with incisions.Months later, I was working alone one weekend. The census was high and I was stretched thin. A girl on our list had a one-liner that was hard to forget. Her suffering and long-term ramifications were devastating. My role in her care was limited: I did not participate in her surgeries or manage her course. I knew her story, but I did not know her. Yet I found myself thinking of her while tucking into a dessert of toasted sweet meringue on a bed of tart raspberry purée. There was something so delightful, playful, frivolous even, about this dessert. It was the kind of thing any child would love. It felt so indulgent to be allowed this kind of joy that typifies youth. I thought, she should be playing and enjoying this kind of dessert.Driving through the forest that night, I was mesmerized by the tall pines, each perfectly coated with fresh snow. Drawn into wonder and natural beauty, I again thought of her and wondered, did my white coat get too thin?Then I became the patient in the gown. I fit perfectly into the little treatment flow chart boxes. Each step of care was medically and biologically sound, but my outcome also was not as expected. I would have made the same decisions as the clinician.There was no particular “ah-ha” moment for me. I started listening in earnest. Even in compressed patient time slots, I made room for patients to tell me how and why, not driven by fear now. The nuances of decision-making and counseling gradually gave more meaning to doctoring. I thought about patients and how my sense of responsibility and duty in medicine was tempered by factors outside of my control. I thought about patients, like myself, that do not respond as expected. About the progression of disease we believe should have responded or the cure we didn't predict. There is so much weight for us to hold. Now as I don my full-length white coat, I hope to keep it thin.

The Effect of AI Chatbot-Based Tourism English Instruction on Intercultural Communicative Competence

The present study aimed at investigating AI chatbot-based Tourism English instruction for college students to develop their intercultural communicative competence. For the study, two distinctive models of AI based educational approach were proposed; learning with AI (LWAI) and learning about AI (LAAI). A total of 50 Tourism English 3 learners with the model of LWAI were assigned to conduct a conversation with the chatbot during the semester, while 20 Tourism English 6 learners with the model of LAAI were asked to build a hotel English chatbot. In LWAI, the collected chatbot conversation reports were analyzed in terms of task completion rates. It was found that the chatbot conversations mostly involved small talk rather than problem-solving tasks. In LAAI, Tourism English learners collected English for hotel reservations and coded data into the hotel English chatbot with the help of computer engineering students. As a result of a team project, the hotel English chatbot building was successful. Lastly, there was an increase in participants’ intercultural communicative competence in terms of respect for cultural differences and interaction attentiveness. In short, the present study showed that the AI chatbot-based Tourism English instruction had a positive effect on the development of intercultural communicative competence.