School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses
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ItemOn some uses of the conversational token Mm( 1995)This thesis examines the conversational token Mm, using a core corpus of one hour each of seven Australian couples' conversation. Mm is a common conversational object in the Australian data set, with over 700 instances in the core corpus. Despite its frequent occurrence, it has been little studied in the past. It is a highly indexical, interactional token, as well as being one of the semantically most empty tokens of conversation. Mm belongs to what is probably a closed set of receipt tokens of various kinds in English, which are objects that claim some kind of attention from their producer, who is in a primarily listener role at the time of their utterance. Related tokens include Mm hm, Uh huh, Yeah, Oh, Okay, Right, and probably No. Mm was also found to be flexible and multifunctional, with seven uses found: as a lapse repair token, a degustatory token, a repair initiator, a hesitation marker, a 'quotatory' token, an answer token and a receipt token, the last with three subtypes: as an acknowledger, as a continuer, and as an assessment. The last two are intonational adaptations, from the more typical acknowledging function. By far the most frequent use found in the Australian data set was the acknowledging use, which is one of its uses as a receipt token. Mm in this role was found to be rare in American data examined, but common in British data. As a receipt token (as well as in its other uses), Mm was found to be distinctive from related tokens, most notably in its use as a retrospective, sequence closing item showing weak commitment to the talk to which it is oriented; in many instances it is a weaker version of Yeah. Most typically it is a free-standing token in second position in the sequence. It is quite often followed in the same turn by other brief response objects such as agreement tokens, assessments, collaborative completions, clarification sequences, or topic boundary marking objects. It typically says that its producer has nothing substantial to add to the topic of the talk to which it is oriented, most obviously when the Mm is followed by substantial same speaker talk. Such talk is almost invariably on a topic other than the topic of the talk to which the Mm that precedes it is oriented. The handful of cases where Mm is followed by same speaker on-topic talk show an illocutionary rather than the more usual topical distancing from the talk. Both topical and illocutionary distancing support the interpretation that Mm is a token indicating weak commitment to the talk to which it is oriented. The effect of intonational mappings on Mm is also shown in this thesis. Typically, the receipt token Mm has falling intonation, in which case it is a weak acknowledging or affirming object. If it takes a fall-rising contour, it becomes a continuer similar to Mm hm and Uh huh. If it takes a rise-falling contour, it becomes a relatively weak assessment token, showing heightened involvement in the talk. This thesis goes some way to positioning Mm as a member of a set of receipt tokens, including Mm hm and Yeah. Further work is required to show how these and other related tokens, notably Uh huh, Oh, Okay, and Right can be differentiated more thoroughly, and how they may constitute membership of an interactional, recipiency paradigm in conversation.
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ItemAssessing the second language proficiency of health professionals( 1990)This thesis reports on the development of an Australian Government English as a Second Language test for health professionals, the Occupational English Test (OET) , and its validation using Rasch Item Response Theory models. The test contains sub-tests of the four macroskills, each based on workplace communication tasks. The thesis reports on the creation of test specifications, the trial ling of test materials and the analysis of data from full test sessions. The main research issues dealt with are as follows: 1. The nature of the constructs involved in communicative language testing. The term proficiency is analysed, and its relationship to a number of models of communicative competence examined. The difficulty of incorporating into these models factors underlying test performance is identified. 2. The nature of performance tests. A distinction is introduced between strong and weak senses of the term performance test, and related to the discussion in 1 above. 3. The content validity of the OET. This is established on the basis of a questionnaire survey, interviews, examination of relevant literature, workplace observation and test data. 4. The role of classical and Rasch IRT analysis in establishing the qualities of the test. Classical and Rasch IRT analyses are used to establish the basic reliability of the OET sub-tests. The Writing sub-test is shown to be somewhat problematic for raters because of the nature of the writing task involved. Analysis of data from the Reading subtest demonstrates the superiority of the Rasch analysis in the creation of short tests with a specific screening function. 5. The role of Rasch IRT analysis in investigating the construct and content validity of the test and hence of communicatively-oriented tests in general. Rasch analysis reveals that the sub-tests are satisfactory operationalizations of the constructs 'ESL listening/ speaking/ reading/ writing ability in health professional contexts. For the Speaking and Writing sub-tests, the analysis reveals that responses of raters in categories associated with perceptions of grammatical accuracy have a more important role in the determination of the candidate's total score than was anticipated in the design of the test. This finding has implications for the validity of communicatively oriented tests in general, and illustrates the potential of IRT analysis for the investigation of the construct validity of tests. 6. The appropriateness of the use of Rasch IRT in the analysis of language tests. The nature of the debate about 'unidimensionality' in Rasch analysis is reviewed. It is argued that the issue has been substantialy misunderstood. Data from the two parts of the Listening sub-test are analysed, and statistical tests are used to confirm the unidimensionality of the data set. It is concluded that Rasch analysis is appropriate for a language test of this type. 7. The behaviour of raters in the rating of oral and written production in a second language. The findings reported in 5 above suggest that the behaviour of raters is crucial to understanding what is being measured in a communicative test of the productive language skills. The research demonstrates the value of Rasch IRT analysis in the empirical validation of communicatively oriented language tests, and the potential of large-scale test development projects for theoretical work on language testing.