REPAIR INITIATION STRATEGIES IN EVERYDAY INTERACTION BY SPEAKERS OF MALAY LANGUAGE

Everyday interaction is not a faultless process. It is possible for the process to experience troubles in speaking, hearing or understanding that can lead to interactional breakdowns between speakers. One available mechanism for speakers to address and resolve trouble is through other-initiated repair (OIR). Majority of OIR studies to date have used English language as data source. This may not entirely describe similar strategies employ by speakers of other languages when they participate in OIR. The present study aims to examine strategies for speakers of Malay language to initiate repair following troubles in everyday interaction. Three parent-child dyads of Malay language speakers were selected as participants. Their interaction over several homely activities (i.e. family meal time) were recorded and later transcribed following Jefferson Transcription System (2004). Analysis on strategies was quantitatively performed following Philip’s (2008) Clarification Request coding scheme. Overall result showed that parents and children employ different types of strategies when they are in position to initiate repair. Children largely depend on the use of open-class word that is known to be a weak repair initiator while parents are consistent with a more specific repair initiator. Result from this study provides novel discovery on how Malay speakers initiate repair in the context of parent-child interaction and it can serve as comparative data for future typological studies

Problems following topic shift in interactions with repaired cleft children

Children with a history of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) can experience a range of difficulties such as sound articulation errors and reduced psychosocial functioning. This causes interaction with them to contain more frequent communication breakdowns than non-cleft children. The present study shows evidence of such breakdowns involving topic shifts in the interaction between parents and their repaired CL/P children. Interactional data were obtained through a series of recordings of three parent-child sets. The process is guided by the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA) while coding of topic shift adopts Crow’s typology (1983). Findings show that topic shift during interaction can indeed cause problems for children with a history of cleft, especially involving palatal cleft. Specifically, through the children’s repair initiations, the problems are manifest when a topic is introduced once the previous topic concludes, when a topic is extended and when a topic is revisited. This study shows that topic shift can potentially be a source of problems to CL/P children. Findings are useful for speech therapists, parents and teachers

Problems following topic shift in interactions with repaired cleft children

Children with a history of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) can experience a range of difficulties such as sound articulation errors and reduced psychosocial functioning. This causes interaction with them to contain more frequent communication breakdowns than non-cleft children. The present study shows evidence of such breakdowns involving topic shifts in the interaction between parents and their repaired CL/P children. Interactional data were obtained through a series of recordings of three parent-child sets. The process is guided by the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA) while coding of topic shift adopts Crow’s typology (1983). Findings show that topic shift during interaction can indeed cause problems for children with a history of cleft, especially involving palatal cleft. Specifically, through the children’s repair initiations, the problems are manifest when a topic is introduced once the previous topic concludes, when a topic is extended and when a topic is revisited. This study shows that topic shift can potentially be a source of problems to CL/P children. Findings are useful for speech therapists, parents and teachers

Self-repair as indicator for communicative competence: Observation in the speech of L2 undergraduates

One of the primary goals of L2 teaching and learning in the 21st century is for students to develop necessary communicative competence. However, various employment agencies and organisations have raised the concerns over the poor competency in English language among Malaysian students. This study sets out to look into self repair practice as one aspect of communicative competence among undergraduates through a qualitative approach. In particular, this study analyses aspects of speeches that trigger self-repair and subsequently, examines the strategies employed to self-repair. Conversation Analysis was employed as the methodological framework and the guiding principles for the data collection procedure. Participating students were recorded while doing their presentations and/or having consultations with their supervisor. The recording was orthographically transcribed and incidence of self-repair was later identified and coded according to reasons that contribute to its occurrence and strategies for students to restore the disrupted speech. The findings of this research offer insights into resources for language teaching and learning as well as reasons for poor communicative competence among students

University-Industry Collaboration Through Engineering Final Year Project

Many studies within the area of engineering education and industrial partnership have highlighted the importance of university-industry collaboration. However, most studies have focused on making or strengthening the collaboration through research works between academicians and professionals that may have placed engineering students in less contributing position. This can lead to a significant amount of loss considering students’ exposure to industry while in their academic years can provide them and future employers with greater benefits. In this paper, we discuss how engineering final year project (EFYP) undertaken by students can be employed to strengthen university-industry collaboration and at the same time, comprehensively prepare students prior to joining the industry. Data for this study were responses obtained through semi-structured interview from two respondents selected through purposive sampling technique

Repair strategies to breakdowns in everyday interaction by Malay children with repaired cleft

Repair to conversational breakdowns is important so that mutual understanding between speakers can be restored. Strategies to repair may include but not limited to repetition of trouble source, addition or deletion. However, repair work requires speakers to be equipped with necessary linguistic and cognitive skills (Cho &Larke, 2011) which may be problematic for children with certain disabilities. This study aims to examine how children with such background repair conversational breakdowns that occur during interactions with their parents. Recorded data of interactions within three Malay families, consisting of parents and their children with repaired cleft lip and/or palate, serve as the primary data source. The interactions were recorded during a period of between 14 to 21 months and transcribed using Jefferson’s Transcription Convention (2004). The occurrences of repair strategies were coded and then analysed using Philip’s Repair Initiation Strategies (2008). Results generally show that children with repaired cleft lip and/or palate mostly use open-class repair initiation strategies such as “huh?” which is known to be a weak repair initiator because of their inability to localise the type of trouble source that precedes a turn. Further, “inappropriate” strategy, which is often used, resulted in breakdown sequence thus making repair work a time consuming process. The implications of the study will also be presented

Is it my turn or your turn? Overlapping talk in an online interaction

Lack of shared physical space and sometimes, visibility of the interlocutors in online interaction certainly interfere with the smooth organisation of turn-taking. In addition, to many other problems that may arise, overlapping talk between interlocutors can also take place. Overlapping talk prevents interlocutors from processing the received information clearly. It also creates a non-conducive environment because more than one speaker speaks at the same time. This study first describes interactional features leading to instances of overlapping talk and later, analyses how interlocutors linguistically repair the problematic instances. Data come from a close to 4 hours of online interaction between instructors and university students. They were recorded and transcribed following the Jefferson Transcription System (2004). On the other hand, analysis procedures were guided by the framework of Conversation Analysis by extracting instances where overlapping talks occurred. By looking into these instances, causes for overlapping talks in online interaction are reported alongside with linguistic resources that interlocutors employed to repair. Information obtained can provide understanding on one feature of online interaction and at the same time, be used as a guide to navigate a more conducive online interaction

Other-initiated repair in interaction between parents and children with repaired cleft lip and/or palate / Mohammad Azannee Saad

Troubles in interaction can negatively impact speakers’ mutual understanding. It is thus necessary for any occurring troubles to be addressed and resolved so speakers understand each other correctly and accomplish successful interaction. One mechanism available for speakers to deal with interactional troubles is other-initiated repair (OIR). OIR is a practice when one speaker initiates repair from speaker of preceding talk that has been treated to be problematic. The success of OIR depends on speakers’ ability to first locate troubles and then initiate repair through necessary strategy. This can help the initiated speaker to respond with necessary repair solution so mutual understanding can be restored. In order for OIR practice to happen smoothly, speakers must be equipped with necessary language, cognitive and social skills. In this study, OIR sequences in everyday interaction between parents and their children with surgically repaired cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) of Malay backgrounds are analysed. Specifically, this study examines reasons for troubles to occur during interaction, strategies to initiate repair once troubles occur and strategies for repair solution. Examination on OIR sequence includes linguistic and non-linguistic elements that speakers use as resources. Three families that consist of parents and their children with surgically repaired CL/P are recruited for their interaction to be recorded. Recordings of interaction and transcription of verbal data are strictly guided by Conversation Analysis (CA) that serves as this study’s methodological framework. Identification of troubles and coding of repair initiation strategies and repair solution strategies follow coding scheme by Philip (2008). Findings generally show that troubles in interaction occur mostly due to children’s inability to give sufficient information. As a result, parents tend to request for more information thus placing them in a position to initiate repair significantly higher than children. In addition, such children are also identified to have problems in taking turn allocated by others and monitoring topic shift thus resulting in breakdowns. In terms of repair initiation strategy, parents and children are noted to employ a contrasting mechanism; parents employ strategy of requesting for specific information while children employ open-class word to initiate repair from parents. This difference in strategies relates to types of trouble that occur in preceding turn. Finally, repair solution by children is found to be mostly inappropriate. This causes the OIR sequences to be longer when they include many initiations before mutual understanding is achieved. This study has shown the inability for children with surgically repaired cleft to participate in the practice of OIR. In addition, the first language of speakers and their cultural background provide information in the aspect of linguistic and non-linguistic resources of Malay language speakers. Findings of this study contribute to aspect of speech therapy technique to such population with inclusion of pragmatic functioning and to promote parents’ understanding on how to interact with cleft children to ensure their language and social skills develop as normal developing children