2021, Staley, Larssyn, Jucker, Andreas H.

Recent work on the elements uh and um has focused both on their functional profile and on the sociodemographic patterns of use. They have been shown to be more than just a signal of some trouble in the speech production process; they also perform text structuring functions that are usually ascribed to discourse markers. And their use has been shown to stratify according to gender, age and level of education (e.g. Tottie 2011, 2014). However, such work has not always been sufficiently controlled for context. Differences that were identified for specific speaker groups may ultimately have been caused by different speaker roles or by differences in the formality or privacy of the communicative situation. For this reason, we focus on one single communicative situation, service encounters in selected and socially stratified Los Angeles restaurants. And we focus on one single speaker role, the role of the server. This allows us to test hypotheses about gender differences and socio-economic stratification in a much more controlled environment. In addition, we provide a functional profile of uh and um in this carefully delimited context, and we show that they are not only used in their often-described functions as planners, hesitators or repair managers but also with a highlighting or a face-mitigating function. The high- lighting function turns out to be particularly prominent to emphasize food terminology when servers present menu items to their guests.

2021, Miller, Barbara Therese, Staley, Larssyn

Purpose: The purpose of this student-centred study is two-fold: to better understand how students perceive the role of reflection in their learning, both for their degrees and for their development as future leaders and how lecturers can best use feedback, training and various media to support and encourage student development. Study design/methodology/approach: A class of undergraduate students were surveyed at the beginning and end of a semester on their preferred learning styles. Follow-up interviews were also held with selected participants. During the semester, students were exposed to various formats of reflection: individual written reflections, video reflections and peer reflections. Students received both training in reflection and feedback on their reflections. In the survey and interviews, students were asked about the perceived benefits of such learning formats for their current studies and future careers. Findings: Students indicated an increased ability to reflect honestly and confront their weaknesses. Students also indicated a stronger preference for either the individual written reflection or the video reflection over the peer reflection. Students saw benefit in the greater time that an individual written reflection provided as well as the multimodal aspects of the video reflection, which helped them to reflect in a new way. Additionally, the feedback students received played a big role in allowing the students to feel more comfortable and reflect more honestly. Originality/value: Previous studies have focused on a variety of factors that affect students’ perception of reflection. This study takes a closer look at the effect of feedback and media format on students’ perceived benefits.

2020, Staley, Larssyn, Göldi, Susan, Nikoulina, Anya

Several studies have made claims for the positive effects of the use of multimedia in education; however, there is a lack of systematic and comparable research, especially when it comes to video tutorials. Research also points to a difficulty in forming a strong conclusion when it comes to their effectiveness. This study evaluates the use and benefits of short screencast video tutorials, produced with Camtasia and published on YouTube, in preparing students for research-based writing assignments. The study employs a multi-method research design, comprising of analysis of video-tutorial viewership data from YouTube and a student questionnaire (n=76) on perceived benefits of these video tutorials. Both the data on how the tutorials are used as well as the questionnaire responses enable us to highlight which aspects of these tutorials positively affect the learning process, and importantly, how such tutorials should be adapted to be more useful. Findings indicate that the use of such tutorials is more dependent on the type of information (e.g. theory, instructions or examples) in the tutorials, than their length (within the range of three to six minutes) and that, novice, introductory-level students received greater benefit from the tutorials than more advanced, academic writing and research students.