Chloé Diskin-Holdaway

Bear in a Window: Australian children's perspectives on lockdown and experiences of the COVID‐19 pandemic

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 23-11-2023

DOI: 10.1111/CHSO.12667

Abstract: This paper examines the reflections of a cohort of Australian children who lived through the 2020–21 COVID‐19 pandemic and experienced being in ‘lockdown’ a state of largely being confined to the home for long periods daily. We report how children reflect on their experiences and illustrate how reflections draw on similar topics focused on localised child concerns regarding health, education, family, digital engagement, mealtimes and food. Further, we argue for the importance of including children's own voices of lived experience in reports regarding life during the pandemic since these perspectives may differ from those reported by adults on children's behalf.

Vi snakker sådan: An analysis of the Danish discourse-pragmatic marker sådan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Date: 28-10-2023

DOI: 10.1017/S0332586521000159

Abstract: The last three decades have witnessed increasing interest in discourse-pragmatic markers (DPMs), both with regards to their high frequency in spoken discourse and their multifunctionality in interaction. Most studies have centered on English, with studies on Danish restricted to a handful of previous interactional discourse analyses. This paper is a preliminary investigation of the Danish word sådan (commonly glossed as ‘such’ or ‘like this/that’). A qualitative, form-based, discourse analytic approach is undertaken on over 40 minutes of naturally occurring Danish talk to argue that sådan qualifies as a DPM. In service of textual, subjective, and intersubjective macro-functions, sådan illustrates exemplifies marks hesitation approximates a quantity mitigates, hedges, or softens and allows self-correction or self-repair. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for sådan ’s place in the Danish DPM system and our understanding of DPMs across languages.

Introduction. Sociolinguistic and discursive approaches to language and identity

Publisher: Peter Lang

Date: 2016

DOI: 10.3726/978-3-0353-0776-4/9

You know and like among migrants in Ireland and Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 03-03-2021

DOI: 10.1111/WENG.12541

Attitudes towards Indian English among young urban professionals in Hyderabad, India

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 04-2021

DOI: 10.1111/WENG.12550

Abstract: Despite extensive work on the description of Indian English(es), only limited attention has been paid to attitudes towards the variety among its speakers. This paper reports on semi‐structured interviews eliciting language attitudes with 32 educated young students and professionals in Hyderabad, India. Results reveal that Indian English is occupying an increasingly legitimate position within the popular consciousness, and that there is an increasing sense of ownership of a supra‐local or pan‐dialectal ‘Indian English’. There is an expressed desire for Indian English to continue to expand, and to be accepted as one of the authentic languages of India. The participants exhibited relatively high levels of linguistic security, and while a certain ‘nostalgia’ for British English was retained by some, Indian English appears to be emerging as an authentic carrier of Indian identity.

The attitudes of recently-arrived Polish migrants to Irish English

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 06-2017

DOI: 10.1111/WENG.12253

Attitudes to English in contemporary Malaysia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 06-05-2023

DOI: 10.1111/WENG.12562

Abstract: This article examines the attitudes that Malaysians of different backgrounds hold towards the English language in Malaysia, as well as how they perceive ‘Standard Malaysian English’ and ‘Colloquial Malaysian English’, in terms of status and solidarity. The study administered an online questionnaire, which included an embedded matched‐guise experiment, to 77 Malaysian respondents in Malaysia and Australia. Findings indicated a range of ergent and at times contradictory views of Malaysian English, illuminating how Malaysians are in different stages of acceptance of Malaysian English as a legitimate variety of English. Through an examination of in idual participant responses, the study also shows that Malaysians are attuned to and hold certain stereotypes towards ‘ethnic’ varieties or ‘ethnolects’ of Malaysian English, providing insight into how issues of race and ethnicity, embedded within the broader socio‐political context and language ecology of the nation, have influenced contemporary language attitudes.

New insights into /el/-/æl/ merging in Australian English

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 02-01-2021

DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2021.1905607

Needs and demands for heritage language support in Australia: results from a nationwide survey

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 16-04-2023

DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2023.2189261

The use of the discourse-pragmatic marker ‘like’ by native and non-native speakers of English in Ireland

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 09-0100

DOI: 10.1016/J.PRAGMA.2017.08.004

Language, Identity and Migration

Publisher: Peter Lang UK

Date: 2016

DOI: 10.3726/978-3-0353-0776-4

The Acquisition of Quotatives and Quotative Be Like among Chinese L2 Speakers of English in Australia

Publisher: MDPI AG

Date: 16-05-2022

DOI: 10.3390/LANGUAGES7020123

Abstract: This study explores the acquisition of the English quotative system and the innovative quotative variant be like among Chinese L2 speakers of English residing in Melbourne, Australia. The L2 speakers’ use of quotatives such as say, go, be like, and quotative zero is compared with quotatives used by native speakers of Australian English (AusE) in Perth and Sydney, as well as with a group of Polish L2 speakers in Ireland. A quantitative analysis of the Chinese L2 speakers’ sociolinguistic interviews shows that their distribution of quotatives is dramatically different from native AusE speakers, primarily because of their overall low proportion of be like and their high proportion of quotative say and zero. The L2 speakers also show neutralization (no preference) for language-internal constraints, which have traditionally shown be like to be preferred in first person contexts and for reporting inner thoughts, differing from patterns for AusE observed in Perth and in a recent study of second generation Chinese Australians in Sydney.

Willingness to Communicate and Second Language Fluency: Korean-Speaking Short-Term Sojourners in Australia

Publisher: MDPI AG

Date: 06-05-2022

DOI: 10.3390/LANGUAGES7020112

Abstract: The current mixed-method study investigated two groups of Korean-speaking short-term sojourners in Australia. One group (students) was composed of learners enrolled in English training programs, whereas the other group (workers) was of learners in the workplace. We administered questionnaires and a semi-structured interview to examine their willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as their second language (L2) and explored the relationship between this variable and the sojourners’ amount of L2 contact and their oral fluency in English. Our quantitative analyses show that the student group showed a higher level of WTC and amount of L2 exposure than the worker group. For both groups, WTC significantly predicted sojourners’ amount of L2 exposure. However, oral fluency was found neither to be associated with WTC nor with the amount of L2 exposure. Qualitative theme-based analysis suggests that the two sojourn groups demonstrated similarities and differences in their attitudes and motivations related to WTC and unwillingness to communicate (unWTC). The students demonstrated a stronger tendency to engage in L2 interaction than the workers, aligning with their significantly higher frequency of reported L2 exposure. The workers’ attitudes were characterized by feelings of ambivalence, with co-existence of both WTC and unWTC.

Destabilizing Racial Discourses in Casual Talk-in-interaction

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Date: 10-12-2023

DOI: 10.1093/APPLIN/AMAC064

Abstract: Racialized descriptions are a constant practice in our societies and a fundamental aspect of racial discourses. This paper uses conversation analytic tools within a Foucauldian perspective on discourse to investigate how discourses of race are (re)produced, and consequently navigated, in talk-in-interaction among speakers of Chinese. Four instances of racialized person description, taken from a larger corpus of 16 hours of casual conversation among Chinese migrants in Melbourne and their acquaintances, are explored in detail. The analysis identifies two interactional sequences, joking and accounting sequences, which allow participants to resist racialized descriptions while still orienting to the interactional preference for sociality in casual conversation. The paper argues that casual and friendly interaction may provide empirical evidence for how discourses of race are destabilized at the level of talk-in-interaction.

University Of Melbourne

Location: Australia

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Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP210300631

Start Date: 02-2023

End Date: 02-2026

Amount: $359,090.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE190100187

Start Date: 06-2019

End Date: 12-2024

Amount: $600,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council