This study explores the potential contribution of Eggins and Slade’s (2004) Speech Functions as tools for describing learners’ participation patterns in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC). Our analysis focuses on the relationship between learners’ self-efficacy (i.e. personal judgments of second language performance capabilities) and discourse roles displayed in the online medium. A small corpus of data was selected as a sample from a larger study, comprising one face-to-face interaction (FtF2) and one synchronous text-based chat interaction (SCMC2) between two participants: Celine, a high-self-efficacy (HSE) learner, and Concetta, a low-self-efficacy (LSE) learner. The chat-log and conversation transcript were analyzed by employing: (a) quantitative measures of participation; namely words and turns produced by the participants, (b) Dörnyei and Kormos’s (1998) taxonomy of Communication Strategies, and (c) Eggins and Slade’s (2004) classification of speech functions. Our results suggest that speech functions are indeed effective at describing the social roles enacted by learners during interaction across the two media, in terms of discourse dependence or independence, as well as dominance. Therefore, by complementing other methods, such as quantitative measures of participation and qualitative analyses of communication strategies, speech functions can contribute to providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between SCMC, learners’ selfefficacy, and participation patterns.

Failed humour in conversational exchanges has received increasing attention in humour research (see Bell 2015; Bell & Attardo 2010). However, tensions between what constitutes successful and failed humour have yet to be fully explored outside conversational humour. Drawing on Hay’s (2001) classification of humour stages and using a socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics to examine responses from Spanish L1 and L2 users to differing combinations of structural and content features in cartoons, the present study aims to explore what factors contribute to successful and failed responses to multimodal humour. Previous research has predominantly investigated the role of caricature as one of the prototypical features of cartoons affecting humour communication, suggesting that this feature plays an active role in the recognition of the humoristic genre (Padilla & Gironzetti 2012). Findings from the present study indicate that caricature operates not only in the recognition, but also in the understanding and appreciation stages. In particular, our results point to two other roles of caricature as a secondary incongruity and as a factor that can trigger appreciation through empathy and/or a sense of superiority. Importantly, this investigation indicates that the presence of secondary incongruities can compensate for a partial lack of understanding, highlighting the relevance that this type of incongruity has in humour appreciation.

This study seeks to examine variations in patterns of interactivity as they are displayed in the ongoing discourse construction of high and low self-efficacy learners of Spanish in the context of computermediated-communication. The paper specifically focuses on the analysis of synchronous text chats of six university students of Spanish at intermediate level over the course of two semesters as they carried out semi-directed discussions. The analytical framework is drawn from Eggins and Slade’s (2006) model of speech functions within Systemic Functional Linguistics which, to our knowledge, has never been applied to second language online chat discussions. This approach highlights how general patterns of dominance, sustainability and dependence in the management of discourse behaviour are displayed through the participants’ contributions. The analysis suggests in particular that the realisation of interactivity can be traced back to the negotiation of exchanges concerned with social and interpersonal relations. These findings become particularly relevant when considered within the wider educational debate of participation and acquisition (Sfard, 1998), as the interpersonal relations of people who engage in collaborative activities are normally considered peripheral to second or foreign language learning (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000). On the basis of the present analysis, a further elaboration of the model is proposed to take account of the relational perspective that would need to be tested in future studies using similar data.

No abstract

No abstract