Konzett Any Questions?

Identity Construction in Academic Conference Discussions
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61451-024-6
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 14, 424 Seiten

Reihe: Trends in Applied Linguistics [TAL]

This book explores how academics at conferences co-construct their own and each other’s professional identities. It is based on the detailed sequential analysis of audio recordings of conference discussions in the field of the humanities, the working languages being French and English.The analyses show that the delegates who actively participate in these interactions, whether as presenters, chairpersons or as members of the audience, carry out a considerable amount of identity work, attributing self and other to various categories of professional identity. The discussion participants co-construct themselves and each other discursively as academics, professionals, experts, junior or senior members of the scientific community; they also orient to this identity work as an important task to be achieved at conferences. This study provides detailed insights into the fine-grained mechanics of spoken academic discourse. From the perspective of applied research it serves the double purpose of raising experienced researchers’ awareness of their own routines and introducing novices to the discourse practices of academia.

Zielgruppe

Researchers interested in spoken academic discourse; junior researchers interested in the detailed mechanisms of conference discussions; researchers interested in identity construction in interaction; researchers interested in their own discourse community; presentation/ discussion skills trainers; anyone interested in discussion skills.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Konzett, Carmen

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wissenssoziologie, Wissenschaftssoziologie, Techniksoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sprachsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Chapter 1. Introduction;13
2;Chapter 2. Researching talk-in-interaction;21
2.1;2.1 Looking through the participants’eyes;21
2.2;2.2 Doing CA;27
2.3;2.3 Investigating institutional talk;29
3;Chapter 3. The dynamic discursive nature of identity;32
3.1;3.1 Identity as a social construct;33
3.1.1;3.1.1 Symbolic interactionism;33
3.1.2;3.1.2 Impression management theory;37
3.2;3.2 Identity as a members’category;43
3.2.1;3.2.1 Indexicality and members’construction of reality;43
3.2.2;3.2.2 Membership categorization;45
3.2.3;3.2.3 Doing being X;53
3.3;3.3 Identity, self, and, face;57
3.3.1;3.3.1 Goffman’s notions of face and facework;57
3.3.2;3.3.2 Face in Watts’ social theory of politeness;59
3.3.3;3.3.3 Integrating the concept of face in a CA approach;63
3.4;3.4 Identity construction as a means to an end;65
3.4.1;3.4.1 Social positioning;65
3.4.2;3.4.2 Stylization of self and other;69
4;Chapter 4. Ethnographic background;73
4.1;4.1 Structure of conferences;74
4.2;4.2 Types of contributions in conference discussions;77
4.3;4.3 Discursive roles in discussions;88
4.3.1;4.3.1 What questioners do;89
4.3.2;4.3.2 What answerers do;91
4.3.3;4.3.3 What chairpersons do;94
4.4;4.4 Asking questions;96
4.4.1;4.4.1 What is a question?;96
4.4.2;4.4.2 Yes/No interrogatives;99
4.4.3;4.4.3 Constructing questions to achieve agreement;105
4.4.4;4.4.4 Contrasting academic question-answer sessions with interviews;108
4.5;4.5 Self-presentation – a key feature of conference participation;109
4.5.1;4.5.1 Members’ reasons for organising and participating in conferences;109
4.5.2;4.5.2 Self-presenting in the community;112
5;Chapter 5. The data;119
5.1;5.1 Data collection;119
5.2;5.2 Corpus structure;120
5.3;5.3 Transcription conventions;121
6;Chapter 6. The mechanics of discussions at academic conferences;127
6.1;6.1 TCU completion and assessment;127
6.2;6.2 Speaker selection;131
6.3;6.3 Sequential organisation;132
6.3.1;6.3.1 Side-sequences;135
6.3.2;6.3.2 Pre-sequences;138
6.4;6.4 Formulations;140
6.5;6.5 Preference;145
7;Chapter 7. Results of the data analyses;147
7.1;7.1 Doing being expert;149
7.1.1;7.1.1 Having the overview: doing formulations;151
7.1.1.1;7.1.1.1 Doing formulations to prepare the ground;152
7.1.1.2;7.1.1.2 Responding to formulations by referring to data;158
7.1.1.3;7.1.1.3 An ambivalent face strategy: si j’ai bien compris;167
7.1.1.4;7.1.1.4 Achieving co-agreement in formulations;170
7.1.1.5;7.1.1.5 SUMMARY of 7.1.1. (Doing formulations);179
7.1.2;7.1.2 Displaying alternative access to an idea;179
7.1.2.1;7.1.2.1 moi je vois juxtaposing own research and presenter’s ideas;181
7.1.2.2;7.1.2.2 have you done X?;187
7.1.2.3;7.1.2.3 is it not X?;201
7.1.2.4;7.1.2.4 Putting an additional interpretation up for inspection;219
7.1.2.5;7.1.2.5 SUMMARY of 7.1.2. (Displaying alternative access to an idea);224
7.1.3;7.1.3 Granting the presenter a claim of expertise: requesting information;224
7.1.3.1;7.1.3.1 I’m thinking of other types of data: requesting confirmation of informed guesses;225
7.1.3.2;7.1.3.2 c’est juste une toute petite question: pure information questions;233
7.1.3.3;7.1.3.3 have you seen this in language X?;239
7.1.3.4;7.1.3.4 parce que c'est important: information questions with an agenda;243
7.1.3.5;7.1.3.5 SUMMARY of 7.1.3 (Granting expert status to the presenter);254
7.1.4;7.1.4 SUMMARY of 7.1 (Doing being expert);254
7.2;7.2 Doing being a (good) researcher;255
7.2.1;7.2.1 Collaborative labelling;255
7.2.1.1;7.2.1.1 Displaying collective membership to the scientific community;256
7.2.1.2;7.2.1.2 Displaying understanding and competence;263
7.2.2;7.2.2 Explicit (and critical) reflection on research practices;268
7.2.2.1;7.2.2.1 Lecturing on good research practice;269
7.2.2.2;7.2.2.2 Displaying research practices as personal experience;274
7.2.3;7.2.3 Intertextuality at conferences: semiotic spanning;286
7.2.3.1;7.2.3.1 Positioning self in the scientific community;286
7.2.3.2;7.2.3.2 Referring to a third party as a specific academic practice;296
7.2.4;7.2.4 SUMMARY of 7.2 (Doing being a (good) researcher);306
7.3;7.3 Doing being entertaining;307
7.3.1;7.3.1 Punchlines;308
7.3.1.1;7.3.1.1 Punchlines as part of one’s own turn;308
7.3.1.2;7.3.1.2 Punchlines triggered by other;313
7.3.2;7.3.2 Inserting formulations;316
7.3.2.1;7.3.2.1 Provocative statements to entertain;316
7.3.2.2;7.3.2.2 Formulations as laughables to connect with other(s);320
7.3.3;7.3.3 Second laughables;328
7.3.4;7.3.4 Entertaining through narratives;332
7.3.4.1;7.3.4.1 Everyday-type narratives;333
7.3.4.2;7.3.4.2 Micro-narratives;339
7.3.4.3;7.3.4.3 Requested narratives;341
7.3.4.4;7.3.4.4 SUMMARY of 7.3 (Doing being entertaining);344
7.4;7.4 Performing collective multiple professional identities;346
7.4.1;7.4.1 Displaying self’s professional identity as multi-layered;347
7.4.1.1;7.4.1.1 They – you – I: using pronouns to construct different viewpoints;347
7.4.1.2;7.4.1.2 Relating personal experiences: narratives and recipient design;351
7.4.1.3;7.4.1.3 Displaying affiliation with a category through prosodic and lexical markedness;356
7.4.1.4;7.4.1.4 SUMMARY of 7.4.1 (Displaying self’s professional identity as multi-layered);359
7.4.2;7.4.2 Multiple professional identities presented as dilemmas of the self;360
7.4.2.1;7.4.2.1 Dilemmatic identities as an argumentative strategy;360
7.4.2.2;7.4.2.2 Stream-of-consciousness self-disclosure: content reflected by linguistic structure;366
7.4.2.3;7.4.2.3 SUMMARY of 7.4.2 (Multiple professional identities presented as dilemmas of the self);372
7.4.3;7.4.3 In-groups and out-groups;373
7.4.3.1;7.4.3.1 Constructing group identity through joking and laughter;373
7.4.3.2;7.4.3.2 Competent self vs. incompetent other: precise wording and vague references;376
7.4.3.3;7.4.3.3 Othering through stylization: stereotyping absent others;379
7.4.3.4;7.4.3.4 A present other categorised as in contrast to in-group norms;386
7.4.3.5;7.4.3.5 SUMMARY of 7.4.3 (In-groups and out-groups);395
7.4.3.6;7.4.3.6 SUMMARY of 7.4 (Performing multiple complex professional identities);397
8;Notes;399
9;Chapter 8. Conclusion;401
10;References;409
11;Index;424

Über Autor(innen)

Konzett, Carmen
Carmen Konzett, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.