HEALTH CARE COMMUNICATION
Title: Talking at work: Corpus-based explorations of workplace discourse
Publications: Edited volume with Palgrave Macmillan (expected 2016)
Co-editors: Lucy Pickering (Texas A & M Commerce), Eric Friginal (Georgia State University)
This book is a three-part volume comprising 1) corpus studies of office-based discourse; 2) corpus studies of medical workplace discourse and 3) corpus studies of call center workplace discourse. The volume will demonstrate the breadth of the range of qualitative and quantitative methods that fall under this area of applied linguistics and offers perspectives from multiple workplaces. Corpus-based approaches to linguistic analysis continue to expand and this volume will demonstrate the breadth of the range of qualitative and quantitative methods that fall under this area of applied linguistics research.
Title: Linguistic characteristics of international and U.S. nurse discourse
Presentations: WIN (2011), AACL (2013), AAAL (2013, 2014), TESOL (2014), AACL (2014)
Publications: Monograph with John Benjamins (2015); Japan Journal of Nursing Science (2013), Research and Theory for Nursing
Practice (2012), English for Specific Purposes (2015)
Grants: National Council of State Boards of Nursing, University Medical Center of Southern Nevada*, Language Learning Dissertation Grant*, Northern Arizona Regent's Dissertation Grant*, AZ TESOL Special Projects Mini Grant*
Co-authors: Nina Carter (UMCSN), Jay Shen (UNLV), Yu Xu (UNLV), Anne Bolstad (UNLV)
Internationally educated nurses (IENs) whose first language is not English are an increasingly important part of the U.S. workforce (AcademyHealth, 2008). While communication difficulties for IENs are well documented (Davis & Nichols, 2002; Edwards & Davis, 2006; Xu, 2007), it is not clear what communicative features lead to more or less effective interactions. In particular, few studies have investigated linguistic and paralinguistic characteristics of IEN interactions or compared the linguistic features used by IENs with those used by U.S. nurses whose first language is English (USNs). In addition, little research has quantitatively examined the linguistic features of effective interactions by either IENs or USNs.
This research has three main goals: 1) to identify the linguistic differences between nurse and patient discourse 2) to determine the linguistic and paralinguistic differences between IEN and USN discourse 3) to explore the relationship between these linguistic features and IENs’ performance on an interpersonal skills assessment and a measure of patient satisfaction. To reach these goals, there are three main components of the study. First, it analyzes linguistic features of nurse discourse in contrast with patient discourse. In order to better understand the characteristics of nurse-patient discourse, each interaction is divided into different phases, such as openings and closings. These phases form the unit of analysis. The second main component of the study will be a comparison of the linguistic features used by IENs and USNs in each of the phases. The final component will be an investigation of the relationship between linguistic characteristics of the various phases and the performance of both groups of nurses on two perceptual evaluations, one measuring interpersonal communication skills and one measuring patient satisfaction with the encounter.
The findings are expected to be beneficial to IEN training programs by identifying linguistic features that are important in defining the nurses’ role in the interaction as well as characteristics of more successful interactions. By comparing IEN and USN interactions, it will also be possible to determine features that are distinctive of IEN discourse in relation to USN discourse, helping to further target the training to IENs.
Title: Speak for success
Presentations: University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (2012)
Publications: Nursing Management (2013)
Grants: National Council of State Boards of Nursing, University Medical Center of Southern Nevada*, Ruth Crymes Fellowship for Graduate Study*
Coauthors: Nina Carter (UMCSN), Jay Shen (UNLV), Yu Xu (UNLV), Anne Bolstad (UNLV)
At least 5.6% of the American nurse workforce was educated outside the U.S., and this figure is widely believed to be underestimated. One of the major challenges for internationally educated nurses in the American healthcare environment is communication, and one area that has been a focus of investigation is pronunciation. Based on research and experience, Yu Xu, Jay Shen, and Anne Bolstad developed Speak for Success, a comprehensive communication training program for post-hire international nurses, funded by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. The first iteration of the program was implemented in 2008 with significant positive outcomes. Speak for Success demonstrated that after a 10-week linguistic class on pronunciation international nurses in the intervention group achieved 52.3% error reduction while those in the comparison group had a 10.5% reduction. In addition, it markedly narrowed the linguistic gaps among international nurses regardless of gender, age, national origin (thus native language), age of arrival, and length of stay in the U.S. As demonstrated by the research evidence, it is believed that the implementation and sustainment of such a program will enhance patient safety and improve quality of care. In fact, this outcome is the best of what an academic researcher can hope for – to impact practice and policy.
In conjunction with University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and Nina Carter, and as a continuation of the work began with Speak for Success, I developed an 8-week course on American English Pronunciation for International Nurses to benefit more international nurses. This course was offered in 2012, again with significant positive outcomes. The curriculum was modified further in Fall 2013 to incorporate findings from my dissertation (discussed above). ESL instructors at College of Southern Nevada received training on this new curriculum and implementation of the new course occurred in January-March 2014. More significantly, this course will be institutionalized and regularly offered at the University Medical Center where about half of its 1300 nurses were internationally educated. The evaluation of the program is ongoing, and additional modifications are planned. In particular, it is hoped that additional features beyond pronunciation will be incorporated into a more comprehensive curriculum.
ACADEMIC WRITING
Title: A comparison of TOEFL iBT written task performance with disciplinary writing proficiency
Co-Principal Investigators: Doug Biber and Randi Reppen
Publication: in preparation
Grants: Educational Testing Service
Evidence to support the ‘extrapolation’ warrant of the TOEFL validity argument has come from two main sources: self-assessments of examinees, and general assessments of language abilities by instructors. To date, no study has directly considered the ways in which TOEFL iBT writing scores relate to performance on actual academic writing tasks in disciplinary university courses. The present project explores this general question, considering differences across the range of genres and writing tasks required in undergraduate and graduate courses from major academic disciplines.
Student participants will be drawn from one university in the U.S. and two international universities (UK and New Zealand), from across both undergraduate (lower and upper division) and graduate levels of study. Each participant will submit multiple texts produced in actual content courses. In addition, each participant will take the written component of the TOEFL iBT.
The central goal of the study is to investigate the ways in which performance on the TOEFL iBT relates to performance on actual writing tasks from different academic disciplines and different academic levels. Several specific analyses of the disciplinary texts are undertaken to achieve this goal, including classification of the genre category for each text, and holistic ratings of each text (including overall quality, with separate ratings of organization and language). In addition, we will carry out detailed corpus-linguistic analyses of both the TOEFL iBT texts and the disciplinary texts, to compare their lexico-grammatical characteristics. In sum, the project will provide a detailed description of the ways in which performance on the written TOEFL iBT relates to the linguistic character and quality of writing on the tasks required in disciplinary courses.
Title: Productive vocabulary: A look at task and L1 variation
Co-authors: Randi Reppen
Presentation: AACL (2013), Corpus Linguistics (2015)
Publication: under revision
Grants: Program in Intensive English, Northern Arizona University
This study investigates productive vocabulary in a corpus from a U.S. freshman writing course that included both L1 English and L2 English students bridging from an IEP. The 240 texts in this study come from two writing tasks (argumentative, analytical) and three different L1s (Arabic, Chinese and English), with an equal number of texts from each L1 group. Several innovative measures are explored such as the use of four word n-grams. In addition, lexico-grammatical patterns including the vocabulary used for noun complements, verb complements, and noun-noun sequences are examined through the lens of variability across different task types and across different L1s.
Title: Formulaic sequences and EAP writing development: Lexical
bundles in the TOEFL iBT writing section
Co-authors: Jesse Egbert, Doug Biber, Alyson McClair
Presentation: AACL (2012)
Publication: Journal of English for Academic Purposes (2013)
While formulaic sequences are known to be important in second language acquisition (Bolinger, 1976; Ellis, 1996; Wray, 2002), little research has investigated their frequency, function and degree of fixedness across multiple proficiency levels. This study examines the use of lexical bundles in the written responses across three proficiency levels in the TOEFL iBT (N=480). Bundles determined to be related to the prompts were examined separately from those not related to the prompt. Biber, Conrad, and Cortes’ (2004) taxonomy was used to identify functions for non-prompt bundles. To measure bundle fixedness, Biber’s (2009) methodology was employed, in which the degree of fixedness for each of the four slots in the bundle was investigated in relation to the other three. Non-parametric statistics were used to determine significant differences in bundle frequency across groups.
The results show that while there is a decrease in bundle use as proficiency increases, the lower level learners used more prompt-related bundles. The results for the functional analysis show a slight increase in the use of referential bundles and a slight decrease in stance and discourse organizing bundles as proficiency level increased. This suggests that higher level learners are using more formulaic language associated with academic writing. Results from the fixedness analysis show few differences in fixed vs. variable slot bundles across proficiency levels. This shows a tendency towards patterns used in conversation. These findings have important implications for learner development and L2 instruction.
ASSESSMENT
Title: Variability in the MELAB speaking task: Investigating linguistic characteristics of test-taker performances in relation to rater severity and score
Co-authors:
Geoff LaFlair, Jesse Egbert
Presentations: AACL (2014), MwALT (2014), Corpus Linguistics (2015)
Publications: Spaan CaMLA Working Papers (2015)
Grants: SPAAN Research Grant, CaMLA*
The overall goal of this study was to examine the extent to which variability across test-taker performances is captured by score and affected by variability in rater severity. First, a Rasch analysis examined rater severity and rater use of the MELAB speaking scale. Second, the linguistic characteristics of test-taker performances were investigated in terms of their relationship with assigned scores and their relationship to rater severity. The results of the Rasch analyses indicated a wide range of rater severity and underuse of the lower end of the scale. The results of the linguistic analyses showed significant correlations with features of speech, interaction, and language and test-taker score. However, no significant correlations were found between linguistic features of test takers’ performances and rater severity. The results of these analyses provide evidence that the linguistic features typical of conversation occur more frequently as performance increases in the MELAB. Additionally, they provide partial evidence that the linguistic features of test-taker language elicited by the MELAB speaking task do not vary across raters.
Title: Investigating lexico-grammatical complexity as construct validity evidence for the ECPE writing tasks: A multidimensional analysis
Co-author:
Xun Yan
Status: in progress
Grants: SPAAN Research Grant, CaMLA*
The complexity of lexico-grammatical features is widely recognized as an integral part of writing proficiency in second language (L2) writing assessment. However, a remaining concern for the construct validation of writing tasks lies in the scalability of representative linguistic features in writing performances. Previous research suggests that distinctions across different levels of writing proficiency are not necessarily associated with individual lexico-grammatical features, but rather with the co-occurrence of multiple features (Biber, Gray & Staples, 2014; Friginal, Li & Weigle, 2014; Jarvis, Grant, Bikowski & Ferris, 2003). The goal of this study is to further the investigation of lexico-grammatical features of ECPE writing performances using multidimensional (MD) analysis. Specifically, six hundred ECPE essay scripts will be used for an MD analysis in order to identify any salient lexico-grammatical features and patterns of co-occurrence among them in the ECPE writing performances. The linguistic features investigated in this study will include lexical features, semantic categories for word classes, and general grammatical features, all of which have been found to characterize written discourse and advanced L2 writing proficiency (e.g., Biber, Gray & Poonpon, 2011). Relationships between individual and co-occurring linguistic features will be examined to assist the identification of discriminating features associated with writing performances at different score levels. Results of this project will inform the scalability of the ECPE writing scale and construct validity of the ECPE writing tasks with respect to lexico-grammatical complexity. Relationships between patterns of co-occurrence among lexico-grammatical features and holistic essay scores will shed light on the characterization of writing performances at different score levels.
*Funding secured by Shelley Staples (PI or Co-PI)