Collaborative storytelling with a person with aphasia
Promoting agency in a multiparty interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.20902Keywords:
Aphasia, Storytelling, Conversation Analysis, Gaze, Agency, CollaborationAbstract
Introduction: This study explores practices employed by a person with aphasia (PWA) and his wife to organize collaborative storytelling in a multiparty interaction. We identify practices that further the PWA’s agency – his impact on action – while he is telling a story together with his wife.
Method: Using conversation analysis (CA), we carried out a case study of a successful storytelling sequence involving a 39-year-old man with anomic aphasia during a conversation with friends.
Analysis: The PWA contributed to the storytelling by initiating the story sequence and by producing short but significant utterances in which he provided essential information and displayed epistemic authority. The spouse aligned with the PWA’s initiated actions and supported his agency by giving him room to speak, for example, by gaze retraction.
Discussion: The analysis offers insight into practices that allowed this PWA to achieve agency. Our findings show that communication partner training could benefit from implementing activities such as collaborative storytelling.
References
Archer, B., Tetnowski, J., Freer, J. C., Schmadeke, S., and Christou-Franklin, E. (2018). Topic selection sequences in aphasia conversation groups. Aphasiology, 32(4), 394–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2017.1413705
Auer, P. (2017). Gaze, addressee selection and turn-taking in three-party interaction. Interaction and Linguistic Structures (InLiSt), 60, 1–32.
Bamberg, M. (2006). Stories. Big or small: Why do we care? Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 139–147. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.18bam
Barnes, S., and Ferguson, A. (2012). Speakership asymmetry during topic talk involving a person with aphasia. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 3(1), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v3i1.27
Barnes, S., Candlin, C. N., and Ferguson, A. (2013). Aphasia and topic initiation in conversation: A case study. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 48(1), 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00186.x
Bauer, A. (2009). Miteinander im Gespräch bleiben – Partizipation in aphasischen Alltagsgesprächen. Mannheim: University of Freiburg.
Beeke, S., Maxim, J., and Cooper, F. (2011). Redesigning therapy for agrammatism: Initial findings from the ongoing evaluation of a conversation-based intervention study. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 24, 222–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2010.03.002
Beeke, S., Beckley, F., Johnson, F., Heilemann, C., Edwards, S., Maxim, J., and Best, W. (2015). Conversation focused aphasia therapy: Investigating the adoption of strategies by people with agrammatism. Aphasiology, 29(3), 355–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2014.881459
Beeke, S., Capindale, S., and Cockayne, L. (2020). Correction and turn completion as collaborative repair strategies in conversations following Wernicke’s aphasia. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 34(10–11), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2020.1728580
Brookshire, R. H., and McNeil, M. R. (2014). Introduction to neurogenic communication disorders (8th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby Elsevier.
Eder, D. (1988). Building cohesion through collaborative narration. Social Psychology Quarterly, 51(3), 225–235. https://doi.org/10.2307/2786921
Enfield, N. J. (2013). Relationship thinking: Agency, enchrony, and human sociality. Foundations of Human Interaction Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199338733.001.0001
Ferguson, A., and Peterson, P. (2002). Intonation in partner accommodation for aphasia: A descriptive single case study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 35(1), 11–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-9924(01)00071-5
Gillespie, A., and Hald, J. (2017). The paradox of helping: Contradictory effects of scaffolding people with aphasia to communicate. PLoS ONE, 12(8), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180708
Goodwin, C. (Ed.) (1981). Conversational organization – Interaction between speakers and hearers. London: Academic Press.
Goodwin, C. (1984). Notes on story structure and the organization of participation. In M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (Eds), Structures of social action (pp. 225–246). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511665868.016
Goodwin, C. (2004). A competent speaker who can’t speak: The social life of aphasia. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 14(2), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.151
Goodwin, C. (2010). Constructing meaning through prosody in aphasia. In D. Barth-Weingarten, E. Reber, and M. Selting (Eds), Studies in discourse and grammar (Vol. 23, pp. 373–394). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/sidag.23.29goo
Goodwin, M. H. (1982). ‘Instigating’: Storytelling as social process. American Ethnologist, 9(4), 799–816. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1982.9.4.02a00110
Hutchby, I., and Wooffitt, R. (2008). Conversation analysis (2nd ed.). Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 219–248). New York: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-623550-0.50016-1
Jefferson, G. (1979). A technique for inviting laughter and its subsequent acceptance/declination. Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, 79, 96.
Kendon, A. (1967). Some functions of gaze-direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica, 26, 22–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(67)90005-4
Kotthoff, H. (2017). Erzählen in Gesprächen. Eine Einführung in die konversationsanalytische Erzählforschung mit Übungsaufgaben. Freiburger Arbeitspapiere zur Germanistischen Linguistik, 38, 1–77.
Laakso, M. (2014). Aphasia sufferers’ displays of affect in conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 47(4), 404–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2014.958280
Laakso, M., and Godt, S. (2016). Recipient participation in conversations involving participants with fluent or non-fluent aphasia. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 30(10), 770–789. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2016.1221997
Laakso, M., and Klippi, A. (1999). A closer look at the ‘hint and guess’ sequences in aphasic conversation. Aphasiology, 13(4–5), 345–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/026870399402136
Labov, W., and Waletzky, J. (1967). ‘Narrative analysis.’ In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press. (Reprinted in Journal of Narrative and Life History (1997), 7, 3–38.) https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.7.02nar
Lerner, G. H. (1992). Assisted storytelling: Deploying shared knowledge as a practical matter. Qualitative Sociology, 15(3), 247–271. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990328
Lind, M. (2005). Conversation – more than words. A Norwegian case study of the establishment of a contribution in aphasic interaction. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15(2), 213–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2005.00088.x
Mandelbaum, J. (1987). Couples sharing stories. Communication Quarterly, 35(2), 144–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463378709369678
Mazeland, H., and Huiskes, M. (2001). Dutch ‘ BUT’ as a sequential conjunction: Its use as a resumption marker. In M. Selting and E. Couper-Kuhlen (Eds), Studies in interactional linguistics (pp. 141–169). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sidag.10.08maz
Milroy, L., and Perkins, L. (1992). Repair strategies in aphasic discourse; towards a collaborative model. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 6(1–2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209208985517
Mondada, L. (2006). Video recording as the reflexive preservation and configuration of phenomenal features for analysis. In H. Knoblauch, J. Raab, H.-G. Soeffner, and B. Schnettler (Eds), Video analysis (pp. 51–68). Bern: Lang.
Mondada, L. (2019). Transcribing silent actions: A multimodal approach of sequence organization. Social Interaction. Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.7146/si.v2i1.113150
Norrick, N. R. (1997). Twice-told tales: Collaborative narration of familiar stories. Language in Society, 26(2), 199–220. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740450002090X
Norrick, N. R. (2000). Conversational narrative. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.203
Olness, G. S., and Ulatowska, H. K. (2011). Personal narratives in aphasia: Coherence in the context of use. Aphasiology, 25, 1393–1413. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2011.599365
Rossano, F. (2013). Gaze in conversation. In J. Sidnell and T. Stivers (Eds), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 308–329). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118325001.ch15
Ryave, A. L. (1978). On the achievement of a series of stories. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 113–132). New York: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-623550-0.50011-2
Sacks, H. (1974). An analysis of the course of a joke’s telling in conversation. In R. Bauman and J. Sherzer (Eds), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking,(pp. 337–353). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Samuelsson, C., and Hydén, L.-C. (2017). Collaboration, trouble and repair in multiparty interactions involving couples with dementia or aphasia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19(5), 454–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2016.1221448
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Selting, M. (2017). The display and management of affectivity in climaxes of amusing stories. Journal of Pragmatics, 111, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.01.008
Selting, M., Auer, P., Barden, B., Bergmann, J., Couper-Kuhlen, E., Günthner, S., Meier, C., et al. (1998). Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem (GAT). Linguistische Berichte, 173, 91–122.
Selting, M., Auer, P., Barth-Weingarten, D., Bergmann, J. R., Bergmann, P., Birkner, K., Couper-Kuhlen, E., et al. (2009). Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2). Gesprächsforschung: Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 10, 353–402.
Selting, M., Auer, P., Barth-Weingarten, D., Bergmann, J., Bergmann, P., Birkner, K., Couper-Kuhlen, E., et al. (2011). A system for transcribing talk-in-interaction: GAT 2 translated and adapted for English by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Dagmar Barth-Weingarten. Gesprächsforschung: Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 12, 1–51.
Shadden, B. (2005). Aphasia as identity theft: Theory and practice. Aphasiology, 19(3–5), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687930444000697
Simmons-Mackie, N., and Kagan, A. (1999). Communication strategies used by ‘good’ versus ‘poor’ speaking partners of individuals with aphasia. Aphasiology, 13(9–11), 807–820. https://doi.org/10.1080/026870399401894
Stivers, T. (2008). Stance, alignment, and affiliation during storytelling: When nodding is a token of affiliation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 41(1), 31–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810701691123
Tannen, D. (1984). Conversational style: Analyzing talk among friends. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Wilkinson, R. (1999). Sequentiality as a problem and resource for intersubjectivity in aphasic conversation: Analysis and implications for therapy. Aphasiology, 13(4), 327–343, https://doi.org/10.1080/026870399402127
Wilkinson, R. (2010). Interaction-focused intervention: A conversation analytic approach to aphasia therapy. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 1(1), 45–68. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v1i1.45
Williams, V., Webb, J., Dowling, S., and Gall, M. (2018). Direct and indirect ways of managing epistemic asymmetries when eliciting memories. Discourse Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445618802657
Zima, E. (2018). Multimodale Mittel der Rederechtsaushandlung im gemeinsamen Erzählen in der Face-to-Face Interaktion. Gesprächsforschung: Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 18, 241–273.
