| This dissertation is interdisciplinary in focus, drawing on relevant research in discourse analysis, SLA theory, psycholinguistics, aphasiology, and neurolinguistics. Using an integrative discourse framework, I examine the compensatory strategies (CSs) aphasic adults spontaneously employ to facilitate their attempts at communication. I argue that communication strategy analysis should be extended to the field of aphasic language (re)learning, instead of being restricted to primarily ESL/EFL or second language learning domains.; Having observed that people tend to dismiss the speech and language of aphasic individuals as incoherent, without making a conscious attempt to understand it or to share part of the speaker's communicative burden by providing phonological, morphological, lexical, and other prompts at appropriate intervals, I decided to study the discourse of aphasic adults in a preliminary study I conducted in the spring of 1993. In this pilot study, I observed that the subject employed alternative means of communication or "compensatory strategies" as they are commonly referred to in the ESL/EFL literature. I decided to expand on this study in my dissertation by focusing on a larger subject pool and by devising an integrative model of discourse analysis which, as I demonstrate, best accounts for the nuances of aphasic speech and language. To further assess its theoretical value, this methodological framework could be applied to different kinds of speech-impaired discourse.; The preliminary chapters illustrate the research gap and account for the components of the framework. The integrative model incorporates a tripartite approach to discourse analysis--the formal (a textual analysis), empirical (conversation analysis), and strategic (CS analysis)--each of which constitutes a pivotal part of a cumulative, macroanalytic, approach. The model puts to test extant frameworks of discourse analysis. As such, this study has important implications not only for linguistics, but for speech therapy, and language learning and teaching in general. These are discussed in the final chapter. |
