A multimodal conversation analytic study of word-searches in L2 interaction

PhD ThesisStudies on face-to-face interactions have demonstrated how spoken language involves not only verbal but also a mutual collaboration with embodied actions. Embodied actions, such as gaze, gestures, body posture and physical movement are part and parcel of the details of ordered social interaction, and they can be significant resources in interaction (Hazel et al., 2014). This study has investigated the embodied actions displayed in word search phenomenon in L2 interaction. Word search is regarded as a type of self-initiation repair in which the progressivity of the speaker’s turn is momentarily ceased due to an item (i.e. word) is not available to the speaker when due (Schegloff et al., 1977). The context of the study is a non-educational context (Firth and Wagner, 1997; Firth and Wagner, 2007; Gardner and Wagner, 2004) where casual conversation among international university students having dinner at a cafe is recorded. Furthermore, the study is a multiactivity setting in which multiparty participants are engaged in talking, eating and drinking. The L2 speakers are from different countries, and most of them have a different first language background. This study examines conversations between L2-L2 speakers communicating in English as it is the most common language that international students resort to when speaking with someone who has a different language background. Using multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA), this study aims to explore how participants with different language proficiency exploit embodied actions as resources in word search sequences. The analyses start with investigating how participants get into a word search and then moves to enquiring how participants use embodied actions for constructing a joint solution. The final analysis focuses on how embodied actions are used as a resource to resolve a word search when the targeted word is not attained. The findings from the investigation suggest that there is a relationship between talk and embodied actions in word search sequences among L2-L2 speakers. Based on the findings, six salient themes will be discussed; (1) the interactional phenomenon of a ‘word search’, (2) resources that are recognised as opportunities for co-participation, (3) joint solutions by non-speaking participants, (4) meaning-making through embodied interaction, (5) achieving mutual understanding through embodied negotiation, and ii (6) language use or learning in the wild. Overall, this study advocates the need for an in-depth exploration of multimodal resources in word search sequences, which can have significant implications to understand that language use is fundamentally multimodal (Seyfeddinipur and Gullberg, 2014).Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysi

Doing second language learning in the wild

The focus of this study is to investigate what do international students do ‘in the wild’, that is, in a mundane, everyday, out-of-classroom second language talk. In face-to-face interactions, spoken language involves not only verbal but also a mutual collaboration with other non-linguistics resources, such as gaze, gestures and bodily behaviour (Goodwin, 1981). This study aims to add to the growing body of second language (L2) research which goes ‘beyond the language classroom’, outside educational settings (Firth and Wagner, 1997; Wagner, 2004) particularly among L2 speakers who do not share the first language. The data for this study consists of casual conversation among international university students having dinner at a cafe which is video-recorded. Using conversation analysis or sometimes referred to as ‘CA-SLA’ (Kasper and Wagner, 2011), this study aims to explore how participants with different language background exploit language and other non-linguistic resources in second language talk outside of educational settings. The findings from the investigation suggest that talk, gaze and gestures as coordinated interactional resources in creating opportunities in L2 learning. The learning sequences in the L2 interaction is framed around repair activities and word searches. By analysing the repair and word search sequences, we demonstrate how participants draw on language and non-linguistic resources for understanding (Seo, 2011) and opportunity for L2 learning can take place outside a classroom environment (Firth and Wagner, 1997)

Developing the Rural Town of Panchor into a Future River-based Tourism Destination: Host Community Perception

This paper examines the significance of a rural area, Panchor village town, as a potential nature tourism site in the Muar district of Johor, Malaysia. The objectives of the study were (1) to evaluate local community support and (2) to assess local community involvement. Based on qualitative analysis of an interview and open-ended responses in the questionnaire, three interconnected themes were: (1) community attachment, (2) economic gains and (3) environmental attitude. The findings revealed that river-based tourism development could stimulate the socio-economic status and the sustainability of rural areas. This study also discussed implications and limitations of the research.    Keywords: Community Attachment; Economic Gains; Environmental Attitude; River-based Tourism eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.223

Languages, gestures and movement as evasion strategies used by Dato' Seri Najib in news interview

News interview is regarded as a form of institutional talk where the interaction process between the participants differs from an ordinary conversation in which the course of interaction in news interviews is an exchange of question-and-answer (Clayman & Heritage, 2002). This paper aims to explore evasion practices used by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak in an exclusive interview episode ‘101 East’ broadcasted live by Al Jazeera Channel on 26th October 2018. The data was collected from the online YouTube videos in which the participants in the 101 East were between the host interviewer, Mary Jolley, and the guest interviewee, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak. Using conversation analysis approach, this study analyzed how the interviewee evaded from answering controversial questions in the interview. The findings suggest that language, gestures and movement were used by the interviewee as evasion strategies to avoid from answering questions and to terminate topics in the interview. The organization of gestures and movement used by the interviewee as evasion strategies in this study were forewarning, interruption, final thanks and body movement

Exploring multi-party interaction in tv talk show: non-verbal as resources for cooperative interruption

Interruption in conversation does not necessarily have to be negative as it could also be viewed as something positive such as for maintaining and progressing a conversation (Amalia, 2016; Li, 2001). This paper explored interruption practices in a Malaysian television (TV) talk show called the DOPStv (Deen of Peace Studios), an Islamic lifestyle talk show. The data was collected from the online YouTube videos in which the series on ‘couple talk’ was selected as the TV talk show represented a multi-party interaction where more than two speakers were involved in the talk. Using the conversation analysis approach, this study analyzed how interruption was managed by the participants in the TV talk show. The findings suggested that the participants in the DOPStv talk show utilized the use of non-verbal cues as resources for cooperative interruption such as to provide assistance, agreement and clarification in a multi-party interaction

Conceptualising doctoral supervision in Malaysia as small cultures: Phd graduates’ perspectives

Research on doctoral supervision in the field of Intercultural Communication has traditionally been applied to cross-cultural comparison, especially across national systems and cultural boundaries. However, recent years have witnessed that such comparison is being challenged and re-analysed in light of potential risk of over generalisation and stereotyping in its observation. In this research, we consider the relevance of small cultures notion (Holliday, 1994, 1999) as an alternative approach to conceptualise doctoral supervisory practice as a dynamic on-going group process through which its members make sense of, in order to operate purposefully within particular contexts and shared behaviours. Narrative-based qualitative research was designed to generate and analyse the data. The participants were a purposive sample of six recently graduated PhD students at a Malaysian public university. One-on-one narrative interviews were conducted with the students to gather their supervisory narratives. Analyses of the students’ transcripts were completed using a holistic-content approach (Lieblich et al. 2008). Findings reveal a distinct set of behaviours and understanding that constitute the cultures of supervisory practice in the Malaysian university context. Through small cultures notion, this research proposes that cultures of PhD supervision can be best understood through an analysis of shared norms, behaviours and values between students and supervisors during supervisory practice. This research hopes that the move from a focus on large culture (i.e. Malaysianness per se) to a focus on the meaning-making process between students and supervisors from different backgrounds can avoid education practitioners, especially PhD supervisors, from making stereotyping and overgeneralising assumptions

Developing the rural town of Panchor into a future river-based tourism destination: host community perception

This paper examines the significance of a rural area, Panchor village town, as a potential nature tourism site in the Muar district of Johor, Malaysia. The objectives of the study were (1) to evaluate local community support and (2) to assess local community involvement. Based on qualitative analysis of an interview and open-ended responses in the questionnaire, three interconnected themes were: (1) community attachment, (2) economic gains and (3) environmental attitude. The findings revealed that river-based tourism development could stimulate the socio-economic status and the sustainability of rural areas. This study also discussed the implications and limitations of the research

Minimising students' communication apprehension: the application of groupwork learning strategy in English classrooms

This study investigated the effectiveness of groupwork as a learning strategy during class lectures and discussions to promote active participation, boost self-confidence and attain higher course achievement among pre-university students studying in an intensive English course. Students were exposed to a variety of strategies that incorporated the essesnce of groupwork learning to reduce their anxiety in oral communication. Students' communication apprehension (CA) scores at the beginning and at the end of the course were compared. The results illustrated that in general students' level of anxiety was reduced from a very high level of CA to a modestly high level of CA when groupwork was used as a learning strategy, which in turn, encouraged them to actively partake in communicative activities, thus enhancing their learning

Problem-based learning module of organic insecticide for the aborigine students in Malaysia

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching model that uses real-world problems to lead students toward the learning objective of a course. It has been widely adopted in Malaysian education. However, PBL module for aboriginal people is scarce. This study aimed to provide suitable PBL activities in learning environmental problems by developing a PBL teaching module for the aborigine community and accessing its suitability. In this study, data was collected through an online validation form that was given to four validators, all of them have science or chemistry education backgrounds. The online questionnaires collected were further analyzed to investigate their responses to the module. The result has shown positive feedback (95.83%) as the responses are very encouraging. All respondents give approbation to the objectives of the module which are clearly stated and are parallel with the content. Many of them also strongly agree that the PBL model and the language used are suitable in this module. There is no doubt that PBL is a valuable tool to teach chemistry to improve students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills effectively