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Toward a Grammar for Dyadic Conversation

De Gruyter
Semiotica
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... Our research focuses on the systematic observation of PI §EF on the cognitive and socio-affective processes of active-comprehending listening, which is stimulated by the acts of speaking and discursive and semiotic strategies (Coll and Onrubia, 2001;Sperber and Wilson, 2004;Van Dijk, 1985, 2000Van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983). This dialogued expository mode is expressed in the verbal and non-verbal behavior of the observable exchanges within the expert's speaking turn (Duncan, 1973;McCarthy, 2003) and, to a lesser extent, in the rotation between turns (Duncan and Fiske, 1977;Poyatos, 1983). ...
... processing (Ausubel et al., 1978;Bruner, 1960) of interactive minds (Staudinger and Baltes, 1996). These externalize the internal dialogue manifested in the auditor back channels activities (Duncan, 1973) and in the brief alternate couplings-secondary alternating, alternation filling in, or overlapping-between the students and the teacher, employing verbal and non-verbal language that is almost like shorthand and unique to the group to communicate what is being understood and, therefore, consequently shared (Schön, 1987). Our vision of the role played by PI §EF is rooted in the educational principles of social-constructivist psychological development (Coll and Onrubia, 2001;Wertsch, 1988); in addition, we are also concerned about universal design for learning (UDL) principles (Mottet, 2015;Novak, 2016). ...
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Introduction In order to improve and innovate the face-to-face instructional task in postgraduate and doctoral university teaching encompasses different formats of participatory interaction (PI), considered to be social medium facilitators of deep learning, including the development of autonomous expert activity. The purpose of this article is to establish the use of systematic observation and lag sequential analysis as a conceptual-methodological choice to base the review of social-constructivist instructional practice that is taught in an expository format prepared by the teacher. Method The systematic observation of the expert’s expository session from its inception to its conclusion was approached from a mixed methods perspective as a subject of multiple case studies. A total of four postgraduate teachers were selected. A purpose-built observational instrument was constructed. The data quality was evaluated with intra-observer agreement tests by calculating Cohen’s kappa coefficient (k). After the data matrices for each case were obtained, all possible file aggregations of the data were performed to detect the existence of common structures in the patterns through lag sequential analysis. Results The sequential patterns of replicated and common lags of the multiple cases describe the chaining of the observed events, which characterizes the participatory interaction. Twelve lag sequential patterns have been identified that function as dialogical links, generated by the probability that the category “question” is linked to the conditioned events of “speech direction” and “exchange orientation.” Discussion Having constructed a theoretical interpretative scheme of the replicated patterns, we discuss the results. First, the significant results of the lag sequential analysis as examples of basic patterns extracted from their way of conducting expert expository sessions. As such, they can be reviewed with the formative purpose of reflecting on their potential for change when they are understood as dialogical links of participatory interaction committed to deep learning and the development of expert autonomy. Second, there is a training step consisting of the use of self-observation and the observation that teachers can make of the expert expository task. Finally, we conclude that non-intrusive systematic observation is a good choice when channeling the gradual and renewed improvement of participatory interaction with an expert expository format (§EF) and a mixed methods methodology.
... Following Yngve' work (1970), several studies have been carried out to explore the backchannel phenomenon. For example, Duncan (1973) provides a classification of backchannels that comprises (1) "m-hm" described as a group of readily identified verbalisations; (2) sentence completions; (3) requests for clarification; (4) brief restatements; (5) head nods and head shakes; and (6) smiles (added by Duncan & Fiske, 1985). Also, Edmondson (1981) proposes a taxonomy of listener behaviour that involves (1) go-ons, i.e., showing that the listener is attending and is in favour of the speaker continuing; (2) accepts, i.e., indicating that an act is heard and understood and that it is not unacceptable, e.g., "yes", "mm"; (3) exclaims, i.e., revealing an emotional reaction to the discourse or situation, e.g., surprise, interest; (4) okays, i.e., showing that ...
... International Journal of Instruction, April 2023 • Vol.16, No.2 the listener is satisfied with the outcome. Oreström (1983), drawing on Duncan's (1973) work, specifies that utterances can be divided into speaking turns and backchannel items that contain lexical and non-lexical listener responses and whose functions entail showing the speaker that the message is "received, understood, agreed to and/or has caused a certain effect" (p. 24). ...
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To participate effectively in interaction, interlocutors should make use of various resources such as backchannels. Through backchannels, listeners can, for example, show attention and provide support and feedback. The study aims to explore the effect of proficiency level on backchannel production. 64 English learners at two different proficiency levels participated in a role-play task consisting of a complaint situation. The learners’ production of backchannels was analysed in terms of frequency and typology. Results suggest that the proficiency level and the role adopted in the simulated task appeared to affect the overall frequency and typology of backchannels. Learners with a higher level of language proficiency seem to use backchannels more frequently, probably due to their greater linguistic repertoire and pragmatic awareness regarding the construction of interaction. Results also show that the backchannel categories of continuer and agreement stand out above the rest. Finally, the study offers some pedagogical implications concerning the treatment of backchannels in the language classroom.
... El principio dialógico del discurso expositivo de experto, entendido como la búsqueda de la respuesta activa del otro (Bajtín,1997), se transforma en un mecanismo de cambio al operar través de la interacción participativa. Ésta comprende la acción conjunta del rol activo de los oyentes-estudiantes (Barker, 1971;Duncan, 1973;Poyatos, 1983) con las intervenciones reguladoras de la distancia competencial que el docente produce en posición de hablante principal (Bruner, 1978;Coll & Onrubia, 2001;Hyland, 2005;Prados & Cubero, 2005). ...
... Por otro lado, el que las regularidades encontradas jueguen un papel pertinente y relevante en la ejecución fluida y comprometida de la CEM, es el aspecto a determinar contando con la implicación de los participantes en su valoración correctiva/optimizadora de la sesión grabada a partir de los datos analizados. Para guiar la valoración funcional de los enlaces dialógicos, se cuenta con el modelo teórico de la atención activa de los oyentes (Barker, 1971;Duncan, 1973;Poyatos, 1983), involucrada en los actos de dirección, que comportan reciprocidad, y en la activación del ciclo informativo que da contenido académico a los modos de presentar y facilitar la construcción intelectual compartida de la CEM. ...
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El objetivo de este artículo es compartir algunas consideraciones de fondo y procedimiento sobre la comunicación académica modelada por la interacción participativa en el marco de la formación co-constructiva del profesorado. A partir de un estudio de caso múltiple en aula universitaria se analiza el formato expositivo-magistral con actores motivados a sostener su posición dialógica de rol en la interacción comunicativa y facilitar los actos de ayuda recíproca, recursos discursivos e interactivos que cumplen una función estratégica porque son necesarios para la construcción intelectual y autónoma del aprendizaje. La investigación empírica se diseña como un estudio de observación sistemática con un propósito evaluativo y que implementa la integración de los análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos desde un enfoque mixed methods. La discusión de los resultados pone en valor la flexibilidad y la adecuación del método utilizado tanto en el plano de la descripción matizada del proceso de regulación de la interacción participativa intentada por los actores como en el plano de la evaluación formativa de los puntos fuertes y débiles observados.
... El principio dialógico del discurso expositivo de experto, entendido como la búsqueda de la respuesta activa del otro (Bajtín,1997), se transforma en un mecanismo de cambio al operar través de la interacción participativa. Ésta comprende la acción conjunta del rol activo de los oyentes-estudiantes (Barker, 1971;Duncan, 1973;Poyatos, 1983) con las intervenciones reguladoras de la distancia competencial que el docente produce en posición de hablante principal (Bruner, 1978;Coll & Onrubia, 2001;Hyland, 2005;Prados & Cubero, 2005). ...
... Por otro lado, el que las regularidades encontradas jueguen un papel pertinente y relevante en la ejecución fluida y comprometida de la CEM, es el aspecto a determinar contando con la implicación de los participantes en su valoración correctiva/optimizadora de la sesión grabada a partir de los datos analizados. Para guiar la valoración funcional de los enlaces dialógicos, se cuenta con el modelo teórico de la atención activa de los oyentes (Barker, 1971;Duncan, 1973;Poyatos, 1983), involucrada en los actos de dirección, que comportan reciprocidad, y en la activación del ciclo informativo que da contenido académico a los modos de presentar y facilitar la construcción intelectual compartida de la CEM. ...
Article
Full-text available
El objetivo de este artículo es compartir algunas consideraciones de fondo y procedimiento sobre la comunicación académica modelada por la interacción participativa en el marco de la formación co-constructiva del profesorado. A partir de un estudio de caso múltiple en aula universitaria se analiza el formato expositivo-magistral con actores motivados a sostener su posición dialógica de rol en la interacción comunicativa y facilitar los actos de ayuda recíproca, recursos discursivos e interactivos que cumplen una función estratégica porque son necesarios para la construcción intelectual y autónoma del aprendizaje. La investigación empírica se diseña como un estudio de observación sistemática con un propósito evaluativo y que implementa la integración de los análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos desde un enfoque mixed methods. La discusión de los resultados pone en valor la flexibilidad y la adecuación del método utilizado tanto en el plano de la descripción matizada del proceso de regulación de la interacción participativa intentada por los actores como en el plano de la evaluación formativa de los puntos fuertes y débiles observados.
... This smooth exchange of turns is termed 'transition-readiness' (Duncan, 1972). Speakers signal readiness to transition turns (Duncan, 1972;Duncan, 1973;Duncan, 1974;Duncan & Fiske, 1977;Duncan, Brunner, & Fiske, 1979). Types of turn signals include structure signals and strategy signals. ...
... While the categorical ratings did correspond with numerical rankings, they were not intended to serve as quantitative scores but rather as a source of qualitative information to guide intervention. (Ellis & Beattie, 1986;Crow, 1983;Covelli & Murray, 1980;Ervin-Tripp, 1979;Goodenough & Weiner, 1978;Keenen & Schieffelin, 1976;Schegloff & Sacks, 1973;Duncan, 1972;Duncan, 1973;Duncan, 1974;Duncan & Fiske, 1977;Duncan, Brunner, & Fiske, 1979), while accounting for typical behaviors of TBI (Galski, Tompkins, & Johnston, 1998;Cools & Manders, 1998;McDonald, 1993;Milton & Wertz, 1986). Topic elaboration behaviors include: partner expanding upon the topic, partner exploring the topic, and partner providing clear referents. ...
Thesis
A growing body of literature has supported the need for partner training to facilitate sustainable, meaningful outcomes that transcend the boundaries of traditional therapy settings for persons with social communication dysfunction after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Unfortunately, few empirical studies have addressed partner qualities that predict successful outcomes from training and most studies that do focus on partners are in the realm of aphasia or motor speech disorders associated with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device use. The characteristics that make someone a strong communicative partner might be very different for someone with aphasia or an AAC device versus someone with TBI. Furthermore, individuals with disordered cognitive-communicative functions may require different supports than persons with other communication disorders. The present investigation seeks to answer two questions regarding partner characteristics related to cognitive-communication disorders. First, do persons with TBI report feeling more supported in conversation when their partners use positive communication behaviors? Second, do partner behaviors vary according to the communication profile of the individual with TBI? The results of this study will contribute to a framework for partner training.
... Norman pauses in the middle of a syntactical construction. He gives no intonational or other cue that he is relinquishing the floor (see Duncan, 1973). The silence would have to become quite extended before a new speaker could be counted as not interrupting. ...
... That is, one participant may think that another has finished speaking when in fact he hasn't. (There are, however, interactional practices that mitigate this problem IseeDuncan, 1973]. See also Goodwin 11981. ...
Article
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In conversational analysis, the meaning of an utterance‐in‐conversation is the hearing given to the utterance by the participants, as displayed in their responses. This orientation to participants is very clear in conversational analytic studies and quite consistent with an interactional approach. What is perhaps less clear is that there is another way, within the framework of conversational analysis, of arriving at interpretations of utterances. These latter interpretations are referred to here as “conversationally grounded analyst's interpretations,” and they may be quite distinct from participant hearings. An exchange during a family therapy session is examined in detail to illustrate the notion of an analyst's interpretation. Finally, the usefulness of such a concept in the analysis of conversation is discussed.
... We use the term turn claims to designate failed turn-taking and aborted takeovers, that is, situations in which a listener tries to wrest the turn from a previous speaker, but to no avail (see e.g. Duncan 1972Duncan , 1973Mondada 2007). Before making a quantitative analysis of the interpreters' futile attempts to take over (i.e. ...
Article
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Telephone-based remote interpreting has come into widespread use in multilingual encounters, all the more so in times of refugee crises and the large influx of asylum-seekers into Europe. Nevertheless, the linguistic practices in this mode of communication have not yet been examined comprehensively. This article therefore investigates selected aspects of turn-taking and clarification sequences during semi-authentic telephone-interpreted counselling sessions for refugees (Arabic–German). A quantitative analysis reveals that limited audibility makes it more difficult for interpreters to claim their turn successfully; in most cases, however, turn-taking occurs smoothly. The trouble sources that trigger queries are mainly content-related and interpreters vary greatly in the ways they deal with such difficulties. Contrary to what one might expect, the study shows that coordination fails only rarely during telephone-based remote interpreting.
... In addition, hearers can also use speech in response, which is called feedback. Duncan (1973) points out that feedback, also known as "feedback discourse", is the response of the interlocutor to the current speaker's speech in the conversation. ...
Article
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EFL classroom teaching in China, no matter whether it is traditional one or a flipped one, is a dynamic communicative process by using English with the aim of learning it. The interactive discourse between the teacher and the student has its own pragmatic functions, especially the feedback given by the teachers which may influence the teaching and learning efficiency. In order to provide appropriate investigation resources, a corpus of 128,223 words with 36.65 hour-2199 minute real audiovisual college EFL classroom teaching transcripts is built. Taking the data of the resources as supporting evidence, this paper analyzes the pragmatic functions of EFL classroom feedback discourse, and proposes certain pragmatic strategies of increasing interactivity, which has certain pedagogical implications for EFL classroom teaching.
... Nuestra unidad de registro es el turno de palabra, cuya unidad mínima temporal es un segundo; por lo tanto, registramos segundo a segundo, de principio a fin. (Parker, 1988;Ducan, 1973y Poyatos 1994. ...
... The definitions of turn differ by researchers. For example,Sacks et al. (1974) count a turn when the speaker changes, regardless of the length or contents of the utterances, whileDuncan (1973) andEdelsky (1981) distinguish a short feedback like mmhm or yeah to be no turn but an 'encourager'(Edelsky, 1981:404). ...
Thesis
The current thesis examines pragmatic effects of first and second person subjects that are overtly expressed in spoken Korean. While much literature has focused on the syntactic mechanism of subject omission in Korean as a pro-drop language, relatively little attention has been given to what conditions subjects to be not omitted but overtly expressed. In this study, I focus on pragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of subjects that are overtly expressed, specifically first and second person that are not just an agent of a predicate in a sentence but also an active participant of spoken discourse. In order to test the actual use of overt first and second person subjects, I adopt three spoken Korean corpora (Sejong Spoken Corpus, CallFriend Telephone Conversation and TV drama scripts of ten episodes) totalling approximately 45,000 words. For every predicate spoken in an utterance, I mark whether the subject is expressed or unexpressed and in what reference form it is realised if expressed. Contextual aspects such as social relationship and age difference between speakers are also considered as significant in analysing the meaning of an overtly expressed subject in addition to linguistic cues. The distribution of first and second person subjects in the corpora reveals that the rates of subject expression are 31% for first person and 22% for second person and the expressed subjects are in various referential forms rather than simply in first or second person pronouns. I argue that the overt expression of first and second person subject involves M-implicature (Levinson, 2000) that is raised by a marked expression while there is an unmarked alternative. Since unexpressed subjects are found more frequently in spoken Korean, it can be understood that the speaker of an overt subject intends to express certain pragmatic meaning that is not caused by an unexpressed subject. As claimed in some of the literature in Korean linguistics (e.g., Jeong, 2007; H. Kim, 1999; W. Kim, 1996; Oh, 2007), an overt subject tends to appear in the context of contrast or turn shift in our data. After redefining the scopes of contrast and turn shifting for our analysis, I confirm that overt first and second person subjects are widely and actively engaged in displaying contrast and discourse organisation in spoken discourse. For instance, an overt first or second person subject plays an important role to maintain a contrastive status between different referents in the discourse. In organising discourse, an overt first or second person subject are often used to indicate the speaker's intention to take a turn or give a turn to the interlocutor, respectively. In addition to ensuring contrast and turn shifting, I find that overt first and second person subjects have emphatic and interpersonal functions. For the emphatic function, an overt first or second person subject is used to attract extra attention to the subject of the particular speech act, which is much less obvious in the case of an unexpressed subject. Overt first or second person subjects with emphatic function are frequently found in certain speech acts that include recalling information to confirm, taking responsibility and giving credit. The interpersonal function is in effect when an unusual referential choice for a first or second person subject is used and implies a marked meaning. Speakers are found to choose different referential forms from what is normally expected in the context in order to deliver interpersonal attitudes such as intimacy or politeness. In spoken Korean discourse, an overt subject can raise multiple effects that are not conveyed by an unexpressed alternative. Applying extensive discourse analysis on empirical data, this research attempts to shed light on explaining the phenomenon of subject expression that has been less well understood in the literature of the grammar of subject omission.
... The other men laugh, and the speaker adds that the pus-blisters took two weeks to heal, before continu- ing his story. Like most interjections that undergo sign-based decentring, such usage often serves as a back-channel cue, thereby indicating that the speaker is listening, but cannot or does not want to contribute to the topic at hand (Brown and Yule 1983 : 90-4;Duncan 1973 ). Compare the usage of 'mmm' or 'jeez' in English. ...
Book
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Theory of mind among the Maya.
... They concluded that a better model would be an interactive model of conversation, such as that offered by the field of psycholinguistics (Clark, et al., 1986;1989 Thus, in the interactive model, both participants are active, even when only one is actually speaking. People nod, complete or reshape one another's phrases, and say "uh-huh" (Duncan 1973). From the speaker's perspective, each conversational move involves not only its own contents but also a projection of what the next move will be. ...
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This research focused on the design and evaluation of a multimodal asynchronous communications tool that uses an annotated slide show structure for messages, to support collaborative analysis of post-operations in the National Airspace System (NAS). Voice-based asynchronous annotations communicated between writers working collaboratively have been found to support more extensive discussion of problems in draft documents and to be preferred over text based discussion for some types of feedback. People point naturally when discussing the content of a shared image, and voice synchronized with pointing in asynchronous annotation systems has been found to be more efficient in scheduling tasks, than voice-only, or text only communication. Synchronized voice and pointing has also been shown to focus attention and improve retention of information in multimedia presentation systems. This research involved investigating how different communication modes interact with problem solving and the discussion of distributed information, with a view to improving collaborative post operations analysis within and between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the major airlines in the United States. More specifically how synchronized voice and pointing annotation over asynchronously shared slide shows composed of post operations graphical and tabular data differs in its effect compared to text based annotation, as collections of flights ranked low by standard performance metrics are discussed by FAA and airline representatives. A part-task simulation study had 36 AOC dispatchers, chief dispatchers or ATC coordinators from Northwest Airlines communicate with 36 ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) traffic managers at eight different Centers about performance issues for flights between 9 different city pairs. Each Northwest Airlines participant communicated with one FAA participant, in a one-to-one pairing. A separate slide show consisting of screen captures showing post operations data was created for each city pair. For each slide show, two Northwest Airlines participants were asked to annotate the slides using text, pen marks or arrows, and two were asked to annotate the slides using synchronized voice and pointing, pen marks and arrows. For each slide show, four traffic managers were asked to respond to the annotated message using the same annotation tools the sender used.
... Respondents said that interviewees looked to them for cues regarding whether they were providing them with the right information. The interviewer manages conversations by applying backchannel responses, which are comprised of both verbal ("uh huh", "yes", "mmmm", etc.) and non-verbal interactions (Duncan 1973;Schegloff and Sacks 1973). Respondents stated that continual acknowledgment that they are listening is critical since the news source spends most of the time speaking during an interview: ...
Article
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Journalists have engaged in interviewing practices since the nineteenth century to collect information for news stories. Today, it is considered the dominant approach in news-gathering among journalists. We know very little, however, about the theoretical breadth of interviewing and the associated competencies that journalists should possess to be classified as an expert interviewer. Consequently, the first appropriate step toward specification of this particular news-gathering practice is qualitative research. In the present study, we explored the breadth of journalistic interviewing competencies through 20 semi-structured interviews with journalists and journalism educators. The present study revealed 10 possible journalistic interviewing competen-cies: listening, interaction management, research, empathy, articulation, self-presentation, verification , news judgment, observation, and open-mindedness, based on editor and educator responses. The results demonstrate the complexity of interviewing in journalistic settings and suggest a need for greater empirical and educational focus on the art of interviewing.
... Further, in real life, when one person speaks, the hearer not only listens but also lets the speaker know he is understanding with head moves, yes's, "hum" and other so-called back channel responses [31,32]. ...
Article
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Digital multi-player learning games are believed to represent an important step forward in risk management training, especially related to human factors, where they are trusted to improve the performance of a team of learners in reducing serious adverse events, near-misses and crashes in complex socio-technical systems. Team situation awareness is one of the critical factors that can lead the team to consider the situation with an erroneous mental representation. Then, inadequate decisions are likely to be made regarding the actual situation. This paper describes an innovative communication system designed to be used in digital learning games. The system aims at enabling the learners to share information and build a common representation of the situation to help them take appropriate actions, anticipate failures, identify, reduce or correct errors. This innovative system is neither based on voice-chat nor branching dialogues, but on the idea that pieces of information can be manipulated as tangible objects in a virtual environment. To that end, it provides a handful of graphic interactions allowing users to collect, memorize, exchange, listen and broadcast information, ask and answer questions, debate and vote. The communication system was experimented on a healthcare training context with students and their teacher. The training scenario is set in a virtual operating room and features latent critical events (wrong-patient or wrong-side surgery). Teams have to manage such a critical situation, detect anomalies hidden in the environment and share them to make the most suitable decision. Analyzing the results demonstrated the efficacy of the communication system as per the ability for the players to actually exchange information, build a common representation of the situation and make collaborative decisions accordingly. The communication system was considered user-friendly by the users and successfully exposed lifelike behaviors such as debate, conflict or irritation. More importantly, every matter or implicit disagreement was raised while playing the game and led to an argued discussion, although eventually the right decision was not always taken by the team. So, improving the gameplay should help theplayers to manage a conflict and to make them agree on the most suitable decision.
... On the other hand, Sacks agrees that interruptions can occur during conversations [8]. Overlapping and interruptions can occur when the speaker need to request for clarification, completing and restating or complementing other speaker's statement [2]. Warren mentioned that in the case of an overlap, one of the participants yields the floor quite quickly [12]. ...
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A normal conversation often follows a single transition in which adjacency pair demands co-related and immediate feedback. However, when this synergy is violated to some extent, it is believed that this will lead to unequal turn-taking especially in institutional dialogue. Different social settings could also allow some conversational participants to be dominant or less dominant. This study will investigate the effect of institutional role by using some of the strategy proposed by Heritage. Heritage asserts that these four strategies that will be discussed in this paper namely turn-taking organization, turn design organization, sequence organization and repair organization, enables researcher to determine the institutional field or roles of any speaker in a conversation. Other factor such as lexical choices, which may likely to be associated with the speaker's institutional representation will also be analyzed.
... Nuestra unidad de registro es el turno de palabra, cuya unidad mínima temporal es un segundo; por lo tanto, registramos segundo a segundo, de principio a fin. (Parker, 1988;Ducan, 1973y Poyatos 1994. ...
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... .Tamesand Clarke suggest that these findings might result from the fact that measurement of what has counted as interruption has not been uniform. For instance, a numbcr of studies have excluded overlaps (e.g., Schegloff 1973), or requests for clarification (e.g., Duncan 1973), while others have not. The result is that not al1 instances of simultaneous talk that do not have dominance implications have been excluded. ...
... The other men laugh, and the speaker adds that the pus-blisters took two weeks to heal, before continu- ing his story. Like most interjections that undergo sign-based decentring, such usage often serves as a back-channel cue, thereby indicating that the speaker is listening, but cannot or does not want to contribute to the topic at hand (Brown and Yule 1983 : 90-4;Duncan 1973 ). Compare the usage of 'mmm' or 'jeez' in English. ...
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Based on fieldwork carried out in a Mayan village in Guatemala, this book examines local understandings of mind through the lens of language and culture. It focuses on a variety of grammatical structures and discursive practices through which mental states are encoded and social relations are expressed: inalienable possessions, such as body parts and kinship terms; interjections, such as 'ouch' and 'yuck'; complement-taking predicates, such as 'believe' and 'desire'; and grammatical categories such as mood, status and evidentiality. And, more generally, it develops a theoretical framework through which both community-specific and human-general features of mind may be contrasted and compared. It will be of interest to researchers and students working within the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.
... As a part of the design, we studied psychology literature to understand facial features and behavioral expressions for social signals. Duncan [18] reported a set of body motions from his research on communication behaviors in face-to-face interaction: ...
Article
This paper presents 'Expression' - an integrated assistive solution using Google Glass. The key function of the system is to enable the user in perceiving social signals during a natural dyadic conversation. The design and implementation of the system addressed a number of technical and research challenges - video acquisition and communication over Wi-Fi, efficient detection and tracking of faces, overheating of Google Glass, robust detection of facial features and modeling behavioral expressions, and feedback system for perceiving social signals. Performance evaluation was conducted to ensure the completeness and generalizability of models. Furthermore, usability studies were performed with ten (10) subjects (six visually impaired and four blind-folded) to illustrate the utility of the 'Expression'. Subjective evaluation of Expression was performed using a five (5) point Likert Scale and was found to be excellent (4.383). © 2014 The Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics, and Telecommunications Engineering (ICST).
... Nuestra unidad de registro es el turno de palabra, cuya unidad mínima temporal es un segundo; por lo tanto, registramos segundo a segundo, de principio a fin. (Parker, 1988;Ducan, 1973y Poyatos 1994. ...
Preprint
Previous research has provided evidence of the interaction between eye gaze and turn-taking, showing that turn yielding is generally signalled with mutual gaze, whereby the primary speaker assesses the interlocutor's availability, which is subsequently confirmed by the interlocutor, as the next or secondary speaker reciprocates the gaze. However, the relation between eye gaze and turn-regulating vocal feedback signals, indicating the intention to take the conversational floor or not, can be influenced by different experimental designs. In task-based conversations, turn-regulating vocal feedback reportedly occurs predominantly when speakers avert their gaze. In this study, we investigate the relation between turn-regulating vocal feedback and eye gaze patterns, extending the binary paradigm of averted versus mutual gaze to include unilateral gaze, which can be directed towards the interlocutor when feedback signals are followed by a turn. We also find by-dyad variability, which we attribute to the fact that interlocutors can use the vocal and visual channels of communication together or separately.
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This study investigated the relationship between cultural influence and people’s daily media choices. From the perspective of high-context and low-context culture, an online survey was conducted with 351 participants from China and America filling out questions about culture content, media richness, and daily media choices. Findings not only supported the general notion that China has a relatively high-context culture while the US is comparatively low on the scale, but also indicated that people in different cultures perceive the same communication medium differently. The current study also found out that the perceived media richness of a medium may have a negative impact on the likelihood that it would be chosen for communication. Possible reasons for these findings were explained from the perspective of media richness and social presence. This study suggested further research on variables of convenience, privacy and power distance regarding the utilization of various communication media in different contexts.
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In intercultural communication there is one element that typically makes L2 speakers feel uneasy and insecure about their linguistic performance: prosody. Mastering the prosodic features of the L2, and their pragmatic implications, is often a herculean task that only some learners are able to succeed at. Most studies relate this difficulty to the fact that prosody is one of the first features that are settled in the process of language acquisition from which L2 learners cannot “escape” when they learn another language. In my opinion, the reason for this prosodic “inadequacy” is because pragmatic research is often detached from prosody, possibly because of the lack of a systematic analytical methodology. The aim of the article will be twofold: first, to present a systematic account of feedback in intercultural communication through the comparison of feedback pragmatic markers in speaker contexts: English L1 conversations, and English L1 conversing with English L2 speakers. Second, to develop the methodology of corpus pragmatics as a useful and reliable tool for intercultural communication.
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Taking turns is fundamental to conversation. When people participate in a conversation, they alternate between moments of speaking and not speaking, and generally, only one person at a time claims the role of speaker. It has long been argued that attempting to avoid moments where two or more people speak at the same time is a universal norm for conversation with both cognitive and social motivations. Despite this, moments of simultaneous, overlapping speech are relatively common in everyday conversation and can occur without diminishing comprehensibility or violating social norms. This has provoked a great deal of research which asks: When is it acceptable for more than one person to speak at the same time, and when is it disruptive? In other words, when does overlapping speech constitute an interruption? I argue that the answer to this question is inherently subjective and influenced by a person's own conversational style. Moreover, because conversation participants take turns carrying out actions which extend beyond the scope of a single speaking turn—such as telling a story or solving a problem—I argue that speakers can interrupt by disrupting the completion of such an action, even when they do not speak at the same time as another person. This dissertation uses a large-scale social perception experiment to analyze how listeners come to the interpretation that an interruption has occurred in conversation. 5000 American English speakers completed a web-based survey in which they listened to one of 192 audio recorded dialogues and then answered questions about the speakers they heard and their own communication preferences. The dialogues derive from a small set of base recordings and vary the presence and duration of overlapping speech, the prosody of speaking turns, and the pragmatic relations between speaking turns. I find that listeners perceived speakers to be interrupting when they overlapped with their interlocutors for an extended period of time, especially if they also used a louder voice and faster speaking rate. However, these perceptions varied depending on the listeners' own conversational styles and were more heavily influenced by the pragmatic relations between speaking turns than even the degree of overlap between turns. Specifically, speakers who abruptly changed the topic of conversation were perceived to be interrupting even if they did not overlap with their interlocutor. Based on these findings, I argue that, rather than being an objectively measurable property of the speech signal, interruptions are subjective and context-dependent interpretations about who has the right to speak at a particular moment in time about a particular topic.
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In an earlier investigation, like-sex partners in an acquaintance exercise were found to match their mean levels of intimacy. This "consensus" was achieved through the adoption of asymmetric roles, whereby one partner would consistently set the pace with respect to intimacy, and the other would reciprocate. It was proposed that such unilateral control of the dyad's evolution would be replaced by shared control if partners were encouraged to discuss the problem of how intimate to be with one another. An experiment was conducted with 40 female and 30 male undergraduates. As predicted, role asymmetry gave way to role symmetry when such communication took place. In addition, partners were able to match their mean levels of intimacy during the exercise without recourse to matching on a moment-to-moment basis. In place of a monotonic increase in intimacy, dyads followed a curvilinear course marked by an accelerated increase and a subsequent tapering off or decrease in intimacy level. Findings are discussed in relation to the more general question of how consensus is achieved in the social construction of an encounter or relationship. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Chapter
E-Coaching meint ein Coaching mit elektronischen Medien, mit denen synchrone Kommunikation ortsunabhängig und asynchrone Kommunikation zusätzlich zeit- und zeitzonenunabhängig wird. Darüber hinaus können elektronische Medien auch als Problemlösungs-Tools für Selbstcoachings und zur Effektivitätsverbesserung dialogischer Coachingprozesse genutzt werden.
Book
Communication across Cultures explores how cultural context affects the use and (mis)interpretation of language. It provides an accessible and interdisciplinary introduction to language and language variation in intercultural communication by drawing on both classic and cutting-edge research from pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and politeness studies. This new edition has been comprehensively updated to incorporate recent research, with an emphasis on the fluid and emergent practice of intercultural communication. It provides increased coverage of variation in language within and between cultures, drawing on real-world examples of spoken and written communication. The authors review classic concepts like 'face', 'politeness' and 'speech acts', but also critique these concepts and introduce more recent approaches. Each chapter provides a set of suggested readings, questions and exercises to enable the student to work through concepts and consolidate their understanding of intercultural communication. This is an excellent resource for students of linguistics and related disciplines. Read more at http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/communication-across-cultures-mutual-understanding-global-world-2nd-edition#yVIkHItQiZyFtkVg.99
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In der Ausbildung von Lehrpersonen sind Unterrichtspraktika ein bedeutsamer Ort des Lernens. Dies kann sowohl lerntheoretisch (Gruber, 1999; Neuweg, 2002) als auch aufgrund von Wirksamkeitszuschreibungen durch Studierende begründet werden (Hascher et al., 2004; Schüpbach, 2007). Aus einer sozio-konstruktivistischen Perspektive kommt dabei Unterrichtsbesprechungen eine zentrale Funktion zu in der Relationierung unterrichtsrelevanter Wissensbestände der Studierenden mit ihren aktuellen Unterrichtserfahrungen und dem Expertenwissen der Praxislehrpersonen (Staub, 2004). Die Beziehung zwischen spezifischen Realisierungsformen von Unterrichtsbesprechungen und deren Lernertrag für die Studierenden wurde allerdings bisher kaum untersucht (Hawkey, 1997; Hobson et al., 2009). Mit der vorliegenden Studie werden Unterrichtsbesprechungen hinsichtlich gesprächsanalytischer Merkmale und ihres Lernertrags für die Praktikantinnen und Praktikanten untersucht. Auf dieser Basis wird verglichen, inwiefern sich Besprechungen mit hohem von jenen mit geringem berichtetem Lernertrag unterscheiden. Die Forschungsfragen wurden als Teilstudie einer quasi-experimentellen, multimethodischen Interventionsstudie bearbeitet (Kreis & Staub, 2011), wobei die Intervention auf dem fachspezifischpädagogischen Coaching von Staub (2004) basiert. Das Datenkorpus besteht aus Videoaufzeichnungen der Unterrichtsbesprechungen von 32 Dyaden je einer Praxislehrperson und einer Praktikantin sowie deren Interviewaussagen über konkrete Lernereignisse aus diesen Besprechungen. Die Quantifizierung der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse der Interviewaussagen (Chi, 1997; Mayring, 2003) bildete die Grundlage für die Bildung zweier Extremgruppen (je 8 Dyaden), die hinsichtlich der Anzahl selbstberichteter Lernereignisse maximal kontrastieren. Die Videoaufzeichnungen der Besprechungen dieser Dyaden wurden einer quantifizierenden Gesprächsanalyse unterzogen (Chi, 1997; Henne & Rehbock, 2001). Der Fokus liegt auf dem Gesprächshandeln beider Interaktanten sowie deren Interaktion. Ergebnis der Studie ist erstens ein an Shulman (1987) orientiertes Kategoriensystem, mit dem sich Berichte über Lernereignisse kategorisieren und quantifizieren lassen: Die Studierenden berichten vor allem über die Erweiterung allgemein-didaktischen Wissens, aber auch ihrer Planungs- und Reflexionsstrategien. Für Vorbesprechungen berichten Studierende insgesamt signifikant mehr Lernereignisse als für Nachbesprechungen. Zweitens liess sich ein Inventar von Gesprächshandlungen identifizieren, die spezifisch in Unterrichtsbesprechungen, teilweise gar spezifisch in Vor- oder Nachbesprechungen anzutreffen sind. Die Besprechungen der Dyaden mit hohem Lernertrag unterscheiden sich von jenen mit geringem Lernertrag darin, dass häufiger eine Vorbesprechung durchgeführt wird und die Besprechungen länger dauern. Praktikantin und Praxislehrperson der Dyaden mit hohem Lernertrag führen länger einen ko-konstruktiven Dialog über Unterricht, der insbesondere in der Elaboration der Unterrichtsplanung, der Reflexion der Unterrichtsdurchführung und im Problematisieren bestimmter Aspekte besteht. Ein Vergleich auf der Makroebene hinsichtlich des Auftretens und der Abfolge von Besprechungsphasen zeigt keine bedeutsamen Unterschiede auf zwischen den Gruppen mit unterschiedlichem Lernertrag. Auf der Grundlage dieses Extremgruppenvergleichs lassen sich Hypothesen bezüglich gesprächsanalytischer Merkmale produktiver Unterrichtsbesprechungen ableiten. Zusammen mit den theoretischen und methodischen Ausführungen der Arbeit wird damit eine Basis für weiterführende Studien geschaffen. Summary Practica in schools are a promising environment for student teacher learning. This claim is supported by profession-specific learning theory (Gruber, 1999; Neuweg, 2002) as well as by assessments of the estimated effectiveness of practica by student teachers (Hascher et al., 2004; Schüpbach, 2007). From a socio-constructivist perspective, lesson confer-ences are crucial events concerning the integration of various knowledge bases in this context: ongoing teaching experience of student teachers, expert knowledge of their mentors, and previous teaching-relevant knowledge of student teachers can be linked and fostered through dis-course (Mercer, 1995; Staub, 2004). However, the relationship between different forms of implementation of lesson conferences and learning gains for student teachers has hardly been analysed up to the present (Hawkey, 1997; Hobson et al., 2009). This study aims to shed light on discourse-analytical characteristics of lesson conferences and the result-ing learning outcomes for student tea¬chers. Furthermore, lesson confer-ences with high versus low reported learning outcomes are compared with respect to their discourse-analytical characteristics. The study is part of a multi-method, quasi-experimental intervention study (Kreis & Staub, 2011) which includes training for mentors to become content-focused coaches (West & Staub, 2003). Data consists of video recordings of lesson conferences (32 dyads of mentors and student teachers) and of extensive interviews with 32 student teachers on specific learning epi-sodes that occurred during recorded lesson conferences. Based on the quantification of the qualitative data analysis of interview statements (Chi, 1997; Mayring, 2003), two contrasting groups of 8 dyads each were selected. The groups contrast with regard to the number of learning epi-sodes reported by student teachers. Subsequently, video recordings of the lesson conferences from the contrasting groups were subjected to a pragmalinguistic discourse analysis (Henne & Rehbock, 2001). One result of the study is an inventory of reported learning episodes which is mainly based on Shulman’s (1987) categories of teacher knowledge. Among other things, student teachers reported that they gained general pedagogical knowledge and that they learned strategies for planning and reflection. In addition, student teachers reported signif-icantly more learning episodes for pre- than for post-lesson conferences. The second result is an inventory of discourse actions which are specific for lesson conferences and partly even for pre- or post-lesson conferences. Characteristics of lesson conferences of the dyads with high reported learning outcome differ from those with low outcome: in addition to a post-lesson conference, dyads with high reported outcome also have a pre-lesson planning conference. Furthermore, their conferences take more time and are characterised by longer sequences of co-constructive dialogues in which lesson plans are elaborated or teaching is reflected between mentors and student teachers than those of dyads with low num-bers of reported learning episodes. There are also longer sequences in which certain problematic aspects are expounded on, which can be inter-preted as dialogues in the zone of proximal deve¬lopment of the student teachers. However, there are no differences with respect to phases on a macro-level of analysis between the contrasting groups as long as the above mentioned characteristics can be found. Results indicate hypothe-ses about characteristics of effective lesson conferences. Together with theoretical and methodological elements of the study they lay the ground for further research about lesson conferences and student teacher learn-ing in this context.
Article
This review of nonverbal communication research, which centers on contributions made by communication scholars, summarizes major thought and research along the following lines: 1) issues regarding definitions and approaches to the study of nonverbal communication, 2) research in the variable-analytic tradition, 3) structural research on code, channel, source, and receiver elements, and 4) functional perspectives.
Article
For a sign to be a sign it must bond an object (quality), a signifier, and the idea to which it gives rise (CP 1.339). The paper focuses on the iconicity of silence as a hypoiconic signifier, exploring the semiotics of silence in light of the notions and studies of iconicity. Fascinating parallelisms hold between iconicity and silence. These raise many challenges to the study of each separately, let alone dealing with them jointly. Some icons and some silences are qualities in the real world, others are semiotic forms (signifiers) standing for or denoting objects. Simple, intuitive qualities of iconicity and of silence are naturally grasped and shared from antiquity to the present by cultures and peoples. The paper employs Peirce’s initial basic trichotomy of iconic classes as well as his later hierarchies for studying the iconic stance of silence as a hypoiconic signifier (Secondness). Analyzing and illustrating the possible complexities between forms (a silent signifier), contents, their relations and their interpretations, group hypoiconic silences into silence as an image, silence as a diagram, and silence as a metaphor.
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This is a classic edition of Geoffrey Beattie’s and Andrew Ellis’ influential introduction to the psychology of human language and communication, now including a new reflective introduction from the authors. Drawing on elements from many sub-disciplines, including cognitive and social psychology, psycholinguistics and neuropsychology, the book offers an approach which breaches conventional disciplinary boundaries. Exploring the diverse nature of communication, Beattie and Ellis focus on the range of human communicative channels and the variations which occur both between and within societies and cultures. Written from an informative and entertaining historical perspective, The Psychology of Language and Communication remains a key resource for anyone interested in the psychology of communication, language and linguistics, 30 years on from its first publication.
Chapter
E-Coaching meint ein Coaching mit elektronischen Medien, mit denen synchrone Kommunikation ortsunabhängig und asynchrone Kommunikation zusätzlich zeit- und zeitzonenunabhängig wird. Darüber hinaus können elektronische Medien auch als Problemlösungs-Tools für Selbstcoachings und zur Effektivitätsverbesserung dialogischer Coachingprozesse genutzt werden.
Article
In this dissertation I present a model for the determination of intonation contours from context and provide two implemented systems which apply this theory to the problem of generating spoken language with appropriate intonation from high-level semantic representations. The theory and implementations presented here are based on an information structure framework that mediates between intonation and discourse, and encodes the proper level of semantic information to account for both contextually-bound accentuation patterns and intonational phrasing. The structural similarities among these linguistic levels of representation are the basis for selecting Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG,Steedman1985, 1990a) as the model for spoken language production. This model licenses congruent syntactic, prosodic and information structural constituents and consequently represents a simplifcation over models of prosody developed in syntactically more traditional frameworks. The previous mention heuristic, which has been widely used as a model for determining intonation contours, is shown to be inadequate for handling a broad range of examples involving semantic contrasts, which require pitch accents to be allocated based on their ability to discriminate among available entities in the discourse model. To address this problem, I introduce a model that determines accentual patterns based on sets of alternative entities in the knowledge base. The algorithms for building the information structural representations that encode the semantics of intonation supply the foundation for two computational implementations. These implementations demonstrate how the theoretical model applies to the problem of producing contextually-appropriate spoken output in a natural language generation framework and provide a platform for incrementally testing and refning the underlying theory.
Chapter
As even casual observation of actual conversations shows, no simple theory of the structure of dialogues can be right. In particular, one can at once dismiss a simplistic view of a dialogue as a linear sequence or Markovian chain of moves where each move is related to, or depends on, only the preceding move in the linear order of utterance. Such dialogues of course occur: for instance, a dialogue may start with a question, which is answered, the answer rejected, the rejection argued for, and so on.
Article
One of the major study themes where collaborative technology is concerned deals with the roles played by the various media used for supporting communication between geographically distributed partners working together (Olson et al, 1993). A number of studies on various types of dialogues in such fields as anthropology (Birdwhistell), communication ethnography (Hymnes, Gumprez), conversation analysis (Sacks, Schegloff, psycho-linguistics (Clark), and context analysis (Kendon), have stressed the importance of seeing for maintaining the fluidity of exchanges as well as promoting comprehension of what is being said. This has led various authors to insist on the necessity of including a visual channel centred on partners 'faces in any software designed for remote real time work. However, all scientists in this field do not agree with this point of view some finding it more useful to show the work itself rather than those performing the work. The aim of this survey was to collect exhaustive information on the role played by vision in natural and mediated communication supporting either one of these theses, thus enabling us to conclude once and for all on this question. In our review we stress that most of the previous work deals with situations of social exchange. Now far can results obtained in this type of situation be generalised for application to situations where exchanges refer to work contents? Our reservations are corroborated by the fact that results observed in situations of social exchange, however contradictory within themselves, differ noticeably from the few observations carried out in situations involving group problem-solving. All results of observations for the latter type of situation attribute a minor role to being able to see. Finally, these various findings have led us to question whether integrating a visual channel centred on the partners' faces is absolutely necessary in software developed for remote real time work. We begin our report by detailing the research carried out according to the different perspectives mentioned above, the results which were obtained and the contradictions which appeared. We carry on by developing a discussion in which we have tried to throw light on the role played by seeing in intellectual communication las opposed to social communication). From these findings, we draw a conclusion as to the necessity of a visual channel enabling partners to see each other in situations of remote real time work.
Chapter
This chapter concerns the temporal structure of behavior and interaction amongst individuals as diverse as brain neurons and humans. It suggests a view of behavior and interaction in terms of recurrent self-similar tree structures, T-patterns, which thus have the basic characteristics of fractals and exemplify translation symmetry through the similarity of the recurrence of each, a view that is the basis for the special pattern (T-pattern) detection algorithms implemented in the THEME software especially developed for T-pattern detection. Derived concepts are defined and illustrated with special T-pattern diagrams. Some comparison is made with standard multivariate statistics methods. The analysis of Big Data and Tiny Data using this particular recurrent hierarchical and multiordinal pattern detection approach is discussed, as well as the use of T-pattern Analysis (TPA) to detect experimental effects that often remain hidden to standard statistical methods.
Chapter
The present chapter investigates the relationship between prosody and pragmatics from a theoretical and practical perspective. For Romero-Trillo (Pragmatic Markers. In: Encyclopaedia of applied linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, in press a), pragmatics is the linguistic discipline that studies meaning in context from a dynamic perspective, an approach based on the ‘triangulation model’, which unites the users, their (non)linguistic expressions and their deeds. Pragmatic Markers are, in this model, the elements that fulfil the essential function of feedback in communication to verify the correct reception of a message; they are the ‘go-ahead signals’ in any interaction. Our study compares the realization of native and non-native prosodic performance of feedback elements in a spoken corpus, and their differences on the basis of statistical analyses. From a pedagogical perspective, the study of the acoustic features of Pragmatic Markers that realize feedback in conversation is essential to understand how these elements function as ‘punting poles’ that sail through the flow of conversation, and how foreign speakers of English need to master the prosody of these elements in order to be pragmatically correct.
Article
Communication Across Cultures is an academic reference for university students and interdisciplinary researchers who have no specialised knowledge of linguistics. Key concepts relevant to an understanding of language issues in intercultural communication are drawn from the research area of pragmatics, discourse analysis, politeness and cross cultural communication. The book examines the ways in which the spoken and written word may be interpreted differently depending on the context and expectations of the participants. Intercultural communication involves additional sociocultural dimensions to the context. Examples are drawn from a variety of languages and cultures - ranging from Japan to Germany to the Americas, to Africa and to Australia. Relevant academic literature and recent research is exemplified and explained throughout the book so readers can become familiar with the way research in this field is conducted and so that interdisciplinary researchers can incorporate some of the perspectives presented here into their own research.
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RESUMEN El grupo GAFA surge como consecuencia de identificar las necesidades de clarificación, información y acompañamiento de las mujeres que han superado la enfermedad del cáncer de mama. De acuerdo con esas necesidades, las reuniones terapéuticas se estructuran en base a las orientaciones del psicoanálisis y la terapia grupal, de los grupos psicoeducativos y de los grupos de apoyo. La articulación de estos tres niveles de intervención se elabora bajo el concepto de ayuda interactiva. En este trabajo se informa de forma resumida sobre las características del método grupal GAFA y el proceso de observación científica al que va a ser sometido: metodología de corte cualitativo complementada con técnicas avanzadas de análisis cuantitativo de datos observacionales.
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