Laughter in correction sequences in speech therapy sessions

Abstract

This article deals with the interactional achievement of laughter in speech therapy sessions with adolescents suffering from speech and language impairments. We aim to describe how laughter is locally organized by the adolescent and his/her therapist, and how laughter production provides relevant information about the organization of preference in speech therapy interactions. Using both a conversation analytic approach and quantification, we analyzed video-recorded speech therapy interactions between therapists and adolescent patients in French-speaking Switzerland. We show that adolescents initiate more laughs than therapists overall, but that this pattern is even stronger in correcting contexts, in which such laughs are also predominantly not shared. In correcting activities, the sequential organization of laughter is related to the type of correction trajectory and to the participants' priority in terms of task management. The adolescent produces unilateral standalone laughter when the therapist produces an overt correction, and produces a unilateral laughter-infiltrated second pair-part after the therapist invites him/her to self-correct. By producing unilateral or shared laughter, participants index the importance of correcting business as the main instructional task (unilateral laughter) or as a side activity in the management of an interactional task (shared laughter). Thus, the sequential organization of laughter is not only tied to the asymmetry of institutional status but also to the type of action jointly performed by the participants. By investigating a phenomenon that is still little-knownlaughter in therapeutic interactions with dysphasic adolescentsour study provides relevant therapeutic resources for therapists in the collaborative management of a central activity in therapeutic intervention: the business of correction.

Counselors’ Claims of Insufficient Knowledge in Academic Writing Consultations

“…The smiley voice and laugh particle toward the end of her turn (line 17) index the dispreferred nature of displaying lack of expertise (cf. Petitjean & Cangemi, 2016;Sert & Jacknick, 2015). However, the student shows her affiliation with the counselor by laughing in overlap (line 18), praising the counselor's feedback and highlighting the advantage of getting input from another perspective (lines 19, 21, 23).…”

Resolving interactional troubles and maintaining progressivity in paired speaking assessment in an EFL context

“…These verbal and embodied ways comprise demonstrably long silences (Iwashita et al, 2008;Sert, 2013), lateral headshakes (Sert & Walsh, 2013), smiles (Sert & Jacknick, 2015) and withdrawal of mutual gaze or gaze aversion (Sert, 2013). Sert's (2015) definition of interactional trouble originated from classroom interaction research, but it is applicable to other forms of institutional interaction, including, for instance, speech theraphy sessions (Petitjean & Cangemi, 2016). Therefore, it will be adopted in the present study while describing paired L2 speaking assessment interactions.…”

Naerev hääl ametlikus ja argivestluses

“…On leitud, et seal kasutatakse naeru probleemide, vastasseisu ja mitte-eelistatud väidete pehmendamiseks, samuti delikaatsetest teemadest tuleneva piinlikkuse leevendamiseks. Samuti on uuritud logopeedi ja patsiendi suhtlust ning leitud, et afaasiapatsiendid kasutavad naeru eneseparandustes vigadest tuleneva piinlikkuse pehmendamiseks (Petitjean, Cangemi 2016).…”