Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$312,000.00
Summary
A comparison of everyday and therapeutic talk. This project aims to equip therapists to support clients to overcome mental distress. Psychotherapy is an established approach for treating mental distress, but how therapy differs from supportive conversations with family or friends remains unclear. The project will use text analytic software and conversation analysis to identify therapeutic ways of discussing personal troubles and their association with therapeutic outcomes. Understanding this ass ....A comparison of everyday and therapeutic talk. This project aims to equip therapists to support clients to overcome mental distress. Psychotherapy is an established approach for treating mental distress, but how therapy differs from supportive conversations with family or friends remains unclear. The project will use text analytic software and conversation analysis to identify therapeutic ways of discussing personal troubles and their association with therapeutic outcomes. Understanding this association is expected to enable therapists to use communication practices that are most likely to benefit clients.Read moreRead less
Improving Communication with Aboriginal English Speakers: A Study of cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. The project will explore cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. Often unfamiliarity with Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations on the part of non-Aboriginal people leads to miscommunication, disadvantaging Aboriginal speakers, especially in institutional contexts (for example, schoolrooms, courtrooms, Centrelink offices). The aim of this study is to alleviate such ....Improving Communication with Aboriginal English Speakers: A Study of cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. The project will explore cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. Often unfamiliarity with Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations on the part of non-Aboriginal people leads to miscommunication, disadvantaging Aboriginal speakers, especially in institutional contexts (for example, schoolrooms, courtrooms, Centrelink offices). The aim of this study is to alleviate such problems, and significantly advance Aboriginal English research, by exploring culturally constructed conceptualisations, in particularly cultural-conceptual metaphor, underlying the use of Aboriginal English, using the the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics. The study will also make a significant contribution to the development of Cultural Linguistics. Read moreRead less
The role of feedback in second language learning processes. Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time providing feedback to second language learners on their written work. This research investigation has two stages. Stage one aims to examine the effectiveness of different kinds of feedback, the extent to which learners take notice of the feedback, and the extent to which learners are able to incorporate the feedback into their developing second language systems both in the short term, and th ....The role of feedback in second language learning processes. Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time providing feedback to second language learners on their written work. This research investigation has two stages. Stage one aims to examine the effectiveness of different kinds of feedback, the extent to which learners take notice of the feedback, and the extent to which learners are able to incorporate the feedback into their developing second language systems both in the short term, and the longer term. In the second stage we investigate the success with which the findings from the first stage can be transferred into the classroom context.Read moreRead less
Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health pa ....Driving health care efficiencies and patient care outcomes by improving communication in acute to primary transitions of care. Communication problems are a major contributor to poor outcomes for patients transferring from acute to primary care, accounting for 41 per cent of preventable hospital readmissions. This project aims to identify risk factors for readmission and barriers to successful transitions of care for high-risk patient groups (including the elderly, paediatric and mental health patients), it will then apply these findings to provide effective, measurable and cost-efficient protocols to improve discharge transition outcomes for patients, carers and health service providers. Research outcomes will have general relevance to Australian healthcare settings and include the development of ‘The Safe Transition Communications Tool.’Read moreRead less
Structure and meaning of intonation in three Australian languages. Creating a comprehensive record of Australian Indigenous languages is a goal of a number of interest groups including Indigenous language speakers, linguists and the general public. In this project, unique linguistic and pronunciation features will be documented to better understand communicative processes in three endangered languages.
Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the desig ....Towards a social theory of semiotic technology: Exploring PowerPoint's design and its use in higher education and corporate settings. PowerPoint has become the dominant technology for designing and delivering presentations in many important settings and skills in the use of PowerPoint have become essential for professional and academic success. This study will investigate the use of PowerPoint in higher education and corporate settings in order to discover what these skills are and how the design of PowerPoint supports or hinders the achievement of a range of communicative purposes. The study will provide guidelines for evaluating and improving the design and use of PowerPoint and other, similar presentation software.Read moreRead less
The Cultural Model of Ageing in Australian English. Prolonged old age is one of the most significant medical and societal breakthroughs of our time. As countries like Australia prepare themselves for this ‘longevity revolution’, the current research delivers the much-needed linguistic support for this important interdisciplinary area. By exploring the expressions that contemporary Australians use to talk, directly or indirectly, about growing old, the project will reveal how our society now conc ....The Cultural Model of Ageing in Australian English. Prolonged old age is one of the most significant medical and societal breakthroughs of our time. As countries like Australia prepare themselves for this ‘longevity revolution’, the current research delivers the much-needed linguistic support for this important interdisciplinary area. By exploring the expressions that contemporary Australians use to talk, directly or indirectly, about growing old, the project will reveal how our society now conceptualises a topic so often considered taboo. In addition to scholarly outcomes, this work has a very practical application in the form of information booklets and professional development courses aimed to improve the quality of aged-care services and ultimately the course and outcome of ageing.Read moreRead less
Autism and written narrative: discourse analysis and the characterisation of higher level language disorder phenotypes. This work contributes to the national research priority goal 'A healthy start to life', in advancing our understanding of the language disorder of autism. It is expected to benefit the children, their families and the community in furthering the basic research necessary for the development of new measures of performance, of use in the better assessment of children with language ....Autism and written narrative: discourse analysis and the characterisation of higher level language disorder phenotypes. This work contributes to the national research priority goal 'A healthy start to life', in advancing our understanding of the language disorder of autism. It is expected to benefit the children, their families and the community in furthering the basic research necessary for the development of new measures of performance, of use in the better assessment of children with language disorders and in the design and targeting of intervention programs. This work is cutting edge internationally in the approach it takes to the naturalistic language of children with autism. Hence it will raise the profile of Australia in this research domain.Read moreRead less
Problem gambling: development and application of a new conceptual framework for aetiology and treatment. Around 470,000 Australians (3.3% of the adult population) are estimated to have 'significant' or 'severe' gambling problems. This project responds to the call for a new framework for theorising and researching problem gambling (Productivity Commission, 1999). Currently, the research literature is characterised by disagreement about definition, causes, and treatment. At the community level, di ....Problem gambling: development and application of a new conceptual framework for aetiology and treatment. Around 470,000 Australians (3.3% of the adult population) are estimated to have 'significant' or 'severe' gambling problems. This project responds to the call for a new framework for theorising and researching problem gambling (Productivity Commission, 1999). Currently, the research literature is characterised by disagreement about definition, causes, and treatment. At the community level, different stakeholder constructions of problem gambling have deadlocked debate. There is a clear need to re-think existing approaches. This project applies an innovative, social-scientific methodology specifically designed to analyse complex, real-world social problems in order to develop a new conceptual framework for understanding and treating problem gambling.Read moreRead less
Connecting younger second language learners and older bilinguals: Intergenerational, intercultural encounters and second language development. This project brings together upper secondary school learners of Chinese, German or Spanish and older speakers of the language, promoting mutually beneficial inter-cultural, intergenerational encounters. Valuable community language resources will be tapped to motivate and enhance the second language learning for the social, cultural and economic benefits. ....Connecting younger second language learners and older bilinguals: Intergenerational, intercultural encounters and second language development. This project brings together upper secondary school learners of Chinese, German or Spanish and older speakers of the language, promoting mutually beneficial inter-cultural, intergenerational encounters. Valuable community language resources will be tapped to motivate and enhance the second language learning for the social, cultural and economic benefits. The model promises to make senior secondary second language learning more effective. Australia's social fabric will be enhanced by interactions between cultures and between generations. The project addresses two important goals of the research Priority II --- It is strengthening the Australian social and economic fabric and ageing well, ageing productively.Read moreRead less