Dyadic Conversation between Mandarin-Chinese-Speaking Healthy Older Adults: From Analyses of Conversation Turns and Speaking Roles
Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Chung Shan Medical University
How they used Delve
A speech-language pathology researcher at Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan used Delve to code conversation turns and speaking roles across 50 transcripts of video-recorded conversations between 20 Mandarin-speaking healthy older adults, with four trained research assistants coding independently and point-by-point intercoder reliability above 97%.
“The transcriptions were coded with CTs and SRs through Delve in New York, NY, USA (a registered trademark company: https://delvetool.com/ (accessed on 1 December 2022)), a software tool for analyzing qualitative data.”
- Field
- Speech-language pathology and gerontology; conversation analysis of Mandarin-speaking older adults
- Data
- Transcripts of 50 ten-minute video-recorded conversation sessions from 10 dyads of mutually familiar healthy older adults (20 participants aged 65+, mean ages 78.5 and 75.7) in Taiwan, one session per week for five weeks
- Approach
- Quantitative, non-experimental descriptive observation: utterance-by-utterance coding of conversation turns (CT-A/CT-B) and Goffman's speaking roles (animator, author, principal), tallied as frequencies and percentages per participant; point-by-point inter- and intra-coder reliability on ten randomly selected transcripts
- Data types
- Observation, Other
Abstract
Older adults’ daily conversations with other older adults enable them to connect to their surrounding communities and improve their friendships. However, typical aging processes and fluctuations in family caring might cause conversation changes. The purpose of this study was to explore the quantitative contributions of conversation turns (CTs) and speaking roles (SRs) in Mandarin-Chinese-speaking conversation dyads between mutually familiar healthy older adults (HOAs). A total of 20 HOAs aged 65 or over were recruited. Each dyad conversed for ten minutes once a week for five weeks, five sessions per dyad, for a total of 50 sessions. The frequency and percentages of the coded CTs and SRs contributed by each HOA were individually tallied and calculated. Quantitatively symmetrical contributions of CTs and SRs occurred in Mandarin-Chinese-speaking conversation dyads between mutually familiar HOAs. Although typical aging processes might change conversations, both Mandarin-Chinese-speaking HOAs serve as active interlocutors to each other in taking CTs and SRs to co-construct their conversation processes and content in their dyadic conversation. Sufficient knowledge of conversation co-constructions might lead them to have more supportive environments to connect to surrounding communities and improve their friendships.
Citation
Meng-Ju Tsai (2023). Dyadic Conversation between Mandarin-Chinese-Speaking Healthy Older Adults: From Analyses of Conversation Turns and Speaking Roles. Behavioral Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13020134