School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses
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ItemBilingual children's identity formation in the context of a bilingual primary school( 2013)The study takes place in the context of an Australian state bilingual (English-French) primary school. The aim of this research is to examine how pre-adolescent multilingual students relate to their identity, by focusing on: How students negotiate their way through the boundaries imposed by the various language ideologies to which they are subject (specifically monolingual discourses). The undifferentiated nature of the children’s multilingual repertoire in an educational context where both their languages are clearly separated.
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ItemAn exploratory study of intra-professional, intercultural medical telephone consultations( 2012)International Medical Graduates (IMGs) play an important role in the Australian medical workforce and may face particular challenges due to their language, cultural background and clinical experience. Most studies of communication involving International Medical Graduates have focussed on doctor-patient encounters and there is a dearth of research into interactions with other medical colleagues. Intra-professional interactions frequently occur over the telephone and are central to managing patient-care issues. The central aims of this thesis are to identify the features of effective medical telephone consultations occurring in an intra-professional, intercultural context as well as to explore the nature of any communication difficulties in the calls. The study uses an integrated research design, drawing on qualitative analysis of feedback commentary from the participating senior doctor and genre analysis to examine the audio-recorded telephone consultations. The context is a patient safety training program in a simulation setting. Twelve telephone referrals made during the practice scenarios by a junior IMG to a more senior doctor were recorded and analysed using a genre approach informed by systemic functional linguistics. Feedback comments from the senior doctor were transcribed and analysed for recurring themes. Insights from the senior doctor highlight the many variables contributing to an effective call and the highly demanding nature of the telephone consultations. They also emphasise the similarities between IMGs and other junior doctors. Many of the calls were problematic and the findings point to the important role of professional knowledge in shaping the calls. Difficulties with the staging of the calls as well as with the interactional management of particular stages were identified. Effective calls could be understood as examples of collegial discourse whereas less effective calls typically contained instructional sequences. Problems with traditional language areas such as grammar and pronunciation were a less salient feature of the calls. These findings have implications for how communication protocols in healthcare are conceptualised, particularly in relation to the co-constructed dimension of this genre. The research adds to the growing body of literature on IMG communication and has implications for medical education and curriculum development for IMGs.