Germanic and Slavic Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Communicative practices of resistance in psychotherapy interactions: Patients resistance to solution-oriented questions
(University of Waterloo, 2017-08-30) Morick, Louisa Johanna; Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas; Betz, Emma
In this thesis, I investigate the practices of linguistic resistance in psychotherapeutic interactions to uncover which communicative practices of resistance patient use in these interactions. I study this interactional linguistic phenomenon using conversation analytic methodologies, focusing on patient responses to solution-oriented questions. The data for my analysis come psychotherapeutic interactions involving four individual therapists and four individual patients. Within this thesis, I define linguistic resistance as: disconfirming responses to a therapist’s solution-oriented question. Linguistic resistance plays an important role in psychotherapeutic interactions, allowing the patient to avoid giving a preferred response and, therefore, not dealing with the topic the therapist introduced. While previous research has studied resistance from a psychoanalytic perspective, there is to date little linguistics research on the topic, leading me to my following questions: What communicative practices of linguistic resistance do by patients use? How do patients design their linguistic resistance? And how do therapists respond to this form of resistance? I divide the patients’ displays of resistance into three categories: ‘optimized responses’, ‘permanent resistance’ and ‘no resistance’. Most responses fall in the category ‘optimized responses’, suggesting patients provide a disconfirming response in response to solution-oriented questions; with therapist intervention, the patient can eventually respond in an optimized manner. One communicative practice of linguistic resistance in this category is to reject the therapist’s project through “if I… ever” [“ob ich … jemals”] or similar formulations. In displays of ‘permanent resistance’ patients reject the objective problem itself; formulations such “absolutely” [“auf jeden Fall”] are indication of ‘no resistance’.
Culture-in-interaction: Using idiomatic-sounding membership categorizations in German interactions
(University of Waterloo, 2022-08-29) Profazi, Nina Rahel; Betz, Emma; Deppermann, Arnulf
Understanding (Verstehen) and establishing common understanding (Verständigung) are foundational to human communication. Interactants not only work to understand their conversational partners, but they also act to ensure that they are understood correctly themselves. To this end, interactants use a wealth of linguistic and embodied resources which they tailor to their recipients and their communicative purposes in a given interaction. One such resource is the use of membership categorizations, a practice for positioning people within the realm of a jointly experienced world. Such categorizations (of self and others) can take on an idiomatic quality when they carry culturally specific knowledge, that is the communal common ground (Clark, 1996), of a social community. Following Stokoe’s (2010a) work on English, such categorizations as “ich als Mann” or “typisch Italiener” are glossed as “idiomatic-sounding membership categorizations” and examined in this paper for German, using a combination of Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA). Natural conversations from the corpus FOLK (Forschungs- und Lehrkorpus Gesprochenes Deutsch), at the Leibniz Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim, Germany, serve as the data basis for this work. The data samples stem from private and institutional domains and include both co-present and telephone interactions. The study at hand provides a qualitative analysis of a collection of such categorizations in spontaneous interactions and will focus on describing their sequential position, as well as their interactional function. Results will show that idiomatic-sounding membership categorizations are used in a number of ways to achieve or maintain mutually shared understanding (intersubjectivity) between interactants. Firstly, and confirming prior findings on idiomatic-sounding membership categorizations, such categorizations are used as summaries of conversational sequences, indicating the speaker's understanding and stance toward the previous conversational action. Furthermore, they are systematically used for accounts, which are regularly employed to justify another person’s behaviour. New insights provided by this work is the use of idiomatic-sounding membership categorizations as an interpretive key at the beginning of a narrative multi-unit turn, thus guiding the reception of the story through the chosen categorical lens. Finally, they represent a linguistic resource for resolving delicate conversational situations and thus maintaining the social solidarity in interaction. The results of this study emphasize the importance of socio-cultural belonging in the process of understanding, as it is made relevant and negotiated in interaction for specific interactional purposes in concrete moments. Cultural knowledge is invoked as an interpretive key for ongoing actions and larger activities, thus providing a window into processes of identity construction, knowledge mediation, as well as the production and reproduction of social order.
Kommunikative Praktiken des Widerstands in psychotherapeutischen Gesprächen: Patientenwiderstand durch reaktive Ich-weiß-nicht-Konstruktionen / Communicative practices of resistance in psychotherapy interactions: Patients' resistance through reactive Ich-weiß-nicht-constructions
(University of Waterloo, 2017-08-30) Stremlau, Philipp Armin Gerd; Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas; Betz, Emma
In recent years, there has been an increase in conversation analytic research on psychotherapeutic interactions (Marciniak, Nikendei, Ehrenthal, & Spranz-Fogasy, 2016), particularly on the practices of patient resistance (Ekberg & LeCouter, 2015; Vehviläinen 2008). While some studies have identified broader strategies in patients' responses, few interactional practices have been discussed in detail. Using conversation analytic techniques, I identify and analyze one such practice patients use when resisting in German psychotherapeutic interaction, namely reactive (stand-alone and turn-initial) Ich-weiß-nicht-constructions (IWN). Fourteen psychotherapeutic sessions involving five therapists, fourteen patients and a total of 148 cases of IWN have been analyzed. Stand-alone IWN were rare (12/148) and occurred after presupposing questions prompting self reflection or concerning the patients private life. I identify four increasingly resistant pattern of use in stand-alone IWN: They functioned (1) as markers of epistemic trouble, (2) to resist therapists wording (3) to avoid a topic, (4) as indicators of solidified resistance. Turn-initial IWN were more common (53/148), less often resistant and occurred after similar questions as stand-alone ones. They were used (1) without resistance function, (2) as preface to an avoiding answer, (3) as en epistemic block. I only briefly consider turn-medial and turn-final IWN; patients primarily use the former as problem markers. The latter can assume a resistant position in topic closings.
L2 discourse markers and the development of interactional competence during study abroad
(University of Waterloo, 2022-01-25) Schirm, Ronald Samuel Karl; Betz, Emma
In my dissertation, I use the theories and methodologies of Conversation Analysis (or “CA”, see Sacks et al., 1974) to investigate how speakers of a second language (or 'L2') develop the ability to interact in the L2 — or how they develop their interactional competence (or 'IC', see Hall & Pekarek Doehler, 2011). IC research has described how, over time, L2 speakers develop their IC by becoming able to perform actions, such as disagree (Pekarek Doehler & [Pochon-Berger], 2011), tell stories (Berger & Pekarek Doehler, 2018; Pekarek Doehler & Berger, 2018), and complain (Skogmyr Marian, 2021), more recognizably for their co-interactants. To perform such actions in interaction more recognizably, L2 speakers diversify the members' methods (Garfinkel, 1967, p. vii) they employ in performing those actions in the L2. While prior IC research has predominantly taken as an analytic starting point an action environment, I take as a starting a linguistic resource, specifically discourse markers. Discourse markers are words (e.g., English well, German also) or phrases (e.g., English y'know, German guck mal "look") which show the connection between discursive units and instruct co-interactants how to interpret some current turn at talk against the prior talk. Previous IC studies were able to describe developing L2 IC in terms of co-interactants' visible interpretations of L2 speakers' actions. Co-interactants, however, rarely display their understanding of the use of a particular linguistic resource. By taking discourse markers as an analytic starting point, my dissertation thus offers a different approach to and understanding of IC and its development. In my dissertation, I analyze the everyday interactions of two L2 speakers of German — Rachel and Nina — who are sojourning in Germany. First, I analyze speaker Rachel's use of the particle combination achja in sequence initial positions. In response to some information, L1 speakers of German use achja to claim remembering of that information (Betz & Golato, 2008). While Rachel exclusively uses achja in sequence-initial position, she takes advantage of achja's function as a claim of now-remembering to do some other interactional work, specifically to index now-remembering after a search, to backlink, and to do resumption (in combination with the particle also). Following these analyses, I explore the ways in which her experiences participating in German interaction as well as her L1 (English) could be influencing her use of achja also to accomplish resumption in everyday German interaction. I find that Rachel, while using resources from the L2, is transferring a strategy for resumption from her L1 into her L2 in her resumptions. I then do a longitudinal analysis (see Wagner et al., 2018) of Nina's use of the multi-functional discourse marker also. My analysis finds that Nina uses also at the beginning of the sojourn to maintain intersubjectivity and at the end to repair intersubjectivity. I describe Nina's trajectory of IC development through also as pruning, at term which captures both the growth/strengthening of new uses as well as the dropping of others. I also forward an understanding of IC as the ability to contribute to the organization of interaction, one that harkens back to Psathas' (1990) description of interactional competence as the ability to collaboratively produce structures of interaction. In my final chapter, I use my analytical findings to scrutinize the ethnomethodological notions of member and membership, both of which have been broadly described in CA research in terms of culture, society, and language (e.g., Hellermann, 2008, 2011; Robinson, 2016; Sacks, 1992; ten Have, 2002). I argue that, by using such a conceptualization of membership, CA and IC research do not accurately capture the ways in which interactants orient to each other's contributions in interactions, nor do the fields capture the nuanced and fluid nature of membership and differing access to methods that members may have. By diversifying the approaches we take to studying IC — e.g., by taking L2 linguistic resources as our starting points — we can deepen our understanding what it means to become interactionally competent in a second language.
Pedagogical Approaches for Encouraging Interaction Awareness and Interactional Competence in University-Level Second Language Learners
(University of Waterloo, 2024-05-22) Barnett, Richard; Schmenk, Barbara; Betz, Emma
With my dissertation, I show how learning about interactional patterns and organizational features of spoken language can be achieved for undergraduate second and foreign language (L2) learners, supported by empirical data and arguments drawn from previous research in L2 pedagogy and Conversation Analysis-Second Language Acquisition (CA-SLA) for integrating interactional learning materials and tasks into undergraduate L2 classroom curricula. Through my study, I examine and evaluate the implementation of learning tasks and activities involving recordings and written transcripts of naturally occurring interactions in the L2 for undergraduate learners to learn about interaction and language. This examination is conducted using Interaction Analysis as a methodological framework of investigation, specifically using a reworked version of Schermuly and Scholl’s (2012) Discussion Coding System (DSC) for Group Interaction Analysis. In order to theoretically ground my research, I propose the understanding of interaction awareness (IA) as a prerequisite for the development of interactional competence (IC), where IA can be understood as learners’ capacity to become aware of aspects that are at the core of IC, such as organizational features and reoccurring interactional patterns, pragmatic and social implications of interactional and linguistic features, as well as non-verbal and prosodic features that are observable in spoken interaction. The focus of my study then concentrates on interactional tasks and learning materials comprising recordings and written transcripts of naturally occurring interactions in the L2 for undergraduate learners of German as a means of encouraging IA and language awareness (LA) by way of processes involving discovery learning (DL) and social learning. With my analyses and discussions, I examine the ways that the learners’ observations and discoveries about features of interaction and language, posited during the recorded learning sessions comprising the dataset of my study, can be conceptualized as IA. The collaborative discovery and meaning construction work enacted by the learners during the recorded language sessions comprising my study allow for a close, empirical investigation of the learners’ processes and methods of conduct for invoking reflection and negotiating understanding about interactional and linguistic features of the L2 encountered in the learning materials, thereby leading to an awareness of interaction and language that can be inferred through the recorded learner interactions. The conclusions drawn from my study findings indicate that the learners demonstrated LA through their discussions about individual lexical items and grammatical concepts, for example, with considerations about observed variations in verbal production of specific lexical items, as well as systematicities in spoken language production of verb conjugations in the L2. The concept of IA pushes this understanding of LA further by borrowing and incorporating elements from Conversation Analysis (CA), as shown when the learners demonstrated their capacity to consider, reflect, and formulate hypotheses about these discoveries within the specific, socially situated contexts of each of the observed interactions. Adding to this, IA can constitute further considerations about interaction and language, for example, cultural, regional, or pragmatic implications comprising specific instances or variations of language use in spoken interaction, or specific processes relating to certain points in the interaction, for example, becoming aware of linguistic and interactional processes and re-occurring patterns to do with positional features of interaction, such as goodbyes and conversational closing sequences.
Personality Type and Language Learning Strategy use by University Students: Where the MBTI and SILL Intersect
(University of Waterloo, 2020-07-24) Milne, Elizabeth Wendy; Betz, Emma
This thesis explores the relationship between personality type, as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (“MBTI®”), and the learning strategies employed by learners enrolled in undergraduate foreign language courses at the University of Waterloo. The R.L. Oxford© Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (“SILL”) version 5.1, designed specifically for speakers of English learning a new language, will be used by participants to self-assess current learning strategies (Oxford, 1990). The quantitative portion of the study cross tabulates the data generated from these two electronically administered surveys in an attempt to identify clusters of personality types and learning strategies and determine if any statistically significant correlations between personality type and student learning strategies exist. This study could not prove a higher percentages of any particular type(s) tends to enrol in second language acquisition courses, nor that a corresponding or any set of preferred learning strategies are used. An exploratory research approach is taken for the qualitative portion of the study to examine the language used by participants when answering non-prompted open-ended questions. Specifically, keywords and common phrases from the responses are used to determine if they are predictive of an MBTI type preference. The language the participants used to respond to the short answer questions did not point toward any type preferences; however, a more detailed examination with larger writing samples may be warranted to confirm this finding.
“tu_s oben DRAUFlegen”: tun-constructions as context-sensitive practices in German
(University of Waterloo, 2020-12-21) Bühl, Kira; Betz, Emma; Deppermann, Arnulf
There are a variety of syntactic formats available to get others to do something in German interaction. To make a request or give an instruction, speakers of German may use an imperative, a declarative, a single word, or gestures. When making requests or giving instructions as part of a collaborative activity such as renovating a room or cooking dinner, speakers of German use a number of different verbs, including the polysemous verb tun. Speakers use both the periphrastic format of tun as an auxiliary verb followed by an infinitive (tus da hinlegen) as well as tun as a main verb with a directional adverbial or prepositional phrase (tu des weg; tu des in den Kühlschrank) to instruct interactants to complete a certain task or to direct them to perform a certain action. The first represents a highly stigmatized use of tun (Dudenredaktion, 2014), the latter often considered too vague (Kreß, 2017). This multimodal, conversation analytic study investigates these two tun constructions as context-sensitive practices. I analyze the occurrence and function of 37 examples (13 examples tun + infinitive periphrase; 24 examples tun + directive adverbial complement) in naturally occurring request and instruction sequences. Data are observed in audio and video recordings of everyday German interactions taken from the FOLK corpus that is part of the Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch (DGD). Even though tun in the above-mentioned examples is widely believed to be “bad German” (Brinckmann & Bubenhofer, 2012), the study demonstrates that tun appears in specific contexts for particular types of requesting actions. In most cases, interactants are already oriented to a joint activity. The tun-constructions thus extend something already in progress and mobilize a recipient’s immediate bodily action. As tun has not been studied in greater depth from a conversation analytic approach, this study contributes to the practices of spoken interaction in German.
=und wenn_s nun mal heißt dass die männer mehr leistung BRINgen?: An interactional to the functions of the modal particle „nun mal“ approach
(University of Waterloo, 2016-08-30) Eberz, Isabelle; Betz, Emma; Deppermann, Arnulf
Human interaction is mainly based on conversation. Without conversations, we would not be able to communicate with each other. To communicate, we use words and each word has different and specific meaning. In the German language, there is a rich variety of (modal) particles; that are usually small and short words, which are often and easily overlooked as they are mainly seen as an element of the spoken language. Especially for language learners, modal particles are difficult to learn and understand because their meaning is highly pragmatic. This thesis deals with the actual disposition and function of the modal particle nun mal in real conversation. Until now, there are almost no studies which worked according to conversational analysis and used an interactional approach, but concentrated on invented examples to define the function of modal particles in general. The thesis is based on 76 data examples, which include different varieties of nun mal (56x), such as nu mal (8x), nu ma (5x), nun einmal (5x), nu einmal (1x), and nun ma (1x). The analysis will show that nun mal marks some type of evidence of a constructed reality, which seems to be unchangeable. The grounding of these constructed realities are based on different levels of epistemic domains, which refer back Allgemeinwissen, common sense, personal common ground, communal common ground, and/or the pre-interaction or the personal epistemic domain of the speaker. The grounding can refer back to more than one of these domains and can be supported by additional linguistic tools. Furthermore, it will be shown that by using nun mal, speakers mark the information as given and explicitly not new to the recipient. Nun mal is used in environments, in which speakers are misaligned, which are problematic or in which it is likely that someone objects to the current talk. Based on the constructed reality, speakers use nun mal to achieve different goals, e.g. to constitute a consensus, to end a discussion or topic, to introduce a logical result and outcome, or to work as an objection. Additionally, this thesis will analyze different examples at syntactic boundaries, which are not congruent with the current research of modal particles as they are traditionally seen as limited to the syntactic inner field. This could open new possibilities for future research in this field.

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Browsing Germanic and Slavic Studies by Author "Betz, Emma"