Graduate Students  

Undergraduate Honors Students

Erin Jacobs

Erin's Honors Thesis is titled "Power Through Talk: A Linguistic Investigation Into How Adults Use Power Over Youth to Influence Moral and Cultural Stance." The thesis argues that adult camp counselors greatly influence and shape the thoughts and ideas of youth campers through their use of language in group discussions. My research follows the development of a four-day camp in Arizona into a supportive community shaped by adults and experienced by youth. As a participant observer at the camp, I observed various group discussions that were planned and executed by adult counselors. My fieldwork included active participation in selected activities as well as video recording of group discussions. I evaluate the use of multiple sign systems such as speech and embodiment and then examine their relation to the larger cultural context in which the discussion groups take place. My data suggest that adults in such groups have the power to shape the content of youth narratives to fit their own cultural ideas and norms.

Lisa Newon (2006)

Lisa's Honors Thesis is titled "Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: A Linguistic Study of How Adolescent Girls Formulate Notions of Culture through Evaluative Commentary." Abstract: Gender is an active component in the process of linguistic socialization, and some scholars argue that gendered language stems from male and female children being socialized in different and separate spheres. These researchers argue that girls speak in collaborative and supportive styles, while boys speak in aggressive and competitive styles. Looking at length at the speech used by a group of 11 high school cheerleaders at an all-girl school in suburban Los Angeles, I examine how girls use assertive language to construct an adolescent peer subculture. I investigate two contexts of organizing evaluative speech. In large groups, the girls frequently make evaluative assessments about other girls. In small groups, the girls participate in self-deprecating storytelling and empathetic alignment through turn-taking. By audio-recording and transcribing the girls' verbal interactions, I identify patterns of speech that suggest gender socialization is not only dependent on local context but is simultaneouslly affected by how the individual expresses agency in the local context. Through my analysis of postitive and negative assessments, contexts of laughter, and story structures, I conclude that the speech used by these girls contstructs a local social organization and culture, based on peer evaluation, storytelling, and alignment.

Tamara Jackson

 Tamara's Honors Thesis is titled "Were the Colonists Americans? Classroom Conversation and the Construction of National Identity among Immigrant Students During a United States History Lesson." The thesis addresses the role of classroom conversations in the construction of national identity for students from Latino immigrant families.  Traditionally, social scientists thought children acquired social knowledge and identity inactively through caregivers and agents of socialization.  However, the recent recognition that children are co-participants in the construction of the their life-worlds calls for a more student-centered approach to examining how children create social identities.  My field research emphasizes students' experience of national identity construction through discourse surrounding a history lesson on the early American colonists.  I analyze audio-recordings, written reflections, and semi-structured interviews with the students and teacher of a particular fifth-grade classroom in Southeast Los Angeles in order to compare lesson goals with what the children actually displayed that they had learned.  I observe that the teacher intended to utilize a lesson on the early colonists to encourage conversations that would construct a socially defined American national identity based -on the shared experience of immigration.  However, students also interacted with the hidden curriculum that presented nationality as determined by official, ethnic, or racial criteria, leading to confusion over who is and is not "American." Tamara is currently a graduate student in Communications at University of California, San Diego.

Nastassia Isis Johnson (2004)

Nastassia's Honors Thesis is titled "Constructing Social Difference in the Everyday Lives of Children."

Sarah Press

Sarah's Honors Thesis is titled "Orders, Accounts, and the Culture of Control: Directives in Parent-Chile Relationships." Using models of analysis from linguistics, socio-linguistics, and social psychology, this thesis analyzes video data from the everyday, ordinary interactions of two Los Angeles middle-class families at home. It posits two contrasting approaches to directive use and socialization: the “quick-fix” direct style, and the ‘learning-oriented’ indirect style. These approaches are characterized by their use (or lack of use) of informational accounts, as well as the semantic form directive utterances themselves take. The effects on children, parents, and the development of a family culture of autonomy or control are discussed.

Kristine Anne Van Hamerveld

Kristine's thesis, "An Account of Caretaking and Communication Between Mother and Daughter" addresses the complicated relationship between everyday conversation and physical disability with an emphasis on the extensive linguistic role that can be played by a caretaker. My study explores the specific case of Laura (64), a woman who was partially paralyzed by a stroke, and Jenny (36), her daughter and primary caretaker. Although she is unable to walk, Laura's stroke did not affect her ability to communicate normally. This research illuminates the various asymmetries co-constucted by Jenny and Laura in their daily conversation despite Laura's demonstrated cognitive ability. I argue that as an extension of her role as a caretaker, Jenny assumes the additional roles of manager and mediator in Laura's interaction with the outside world. By videotaping everyday interactions between Laura and Jenny such as shopping trips, doctor's visits, and basic communication at home, I show the distinct patterns of interaction in their complex mother/daughter and caretaking relationship. My findings include evidence of mediation and translation-like behaviors taking place in interaction with a third party.

Danielle Gerson

Danielle's thesis titled, "Sorority Socialization: Acquisition of Communicative Competence through Expert/Novice Relations" looks at socialization in one university sorority. Sorority members are a group of women linked together not only because they have been initiated into the same group, but also because through language and discourse they become competent members of their own subculture. The study examines the way active and new sorority members from one particular sorority construct their speech during formal new member education sessions. During weekly  meetings, new members are actively socialized as sorority women through formal instruction embedded with informal interaction. Collected data from video recordings, participant observation, and interviews demonstrate that the new member novice and active member expert roles are not always clearly defined. Rather, through analyzing specific conversation sequences and narratives, including framing and problem-solving techniques, it is argued that during new member education meetings the expert and novice roles of the active and new members are substantiated as well as mitigated and compromised in interaction. This research presents new data about female speech in a sorority context and provides insights into one sorority's socialization process.