Read the transcript of an interaction in a doctor’s office provided as a download below. To what extent does the transcript provide evidence for how the doctor and patient’s daughter draw on stereotypes about elderly patients?

Read the transcript of an interaction in a doctor’s office provided as a download below. To what extent does the transcript provide evidence for how the doctor and patient’s daughter draw on stereotypes about elderly patients?

Drawing on the range of frameworks/approaches to language analysis that you have come across in Section 3
of the module materials, demonstrate how close analysis of language can provide evidence for your answer.
Include in your discussion a reflection on:
– why you have chosen particular approaches to language analysis, why they are appropriate for this task, and
how they complement each other.
– the limitations of the data you have drawn on, and what additional information or types of data you might
have used to do a more in-depth analysis.
– a brief discussion of the roles and positions constructed for the elderly patient by the doctor and the
patient’s daughter as evidenced in the transcript.
Background to the interaction
Doctor E: (professor), male in his sixties
Patient: female, aged 75
Third-party: patient’s daughter
The patient has been describing pins and needles in her leg when she tries to walk. The transcript begins
about five minutes into the consultation, during which the daughter has said very little, while the doctor and
patient discuss symptoms and medication another doctor has prescribed so far.
Transcript
Transcription conventions used in this extract are:
(.) un-timed short pause
(1.0) pause timed in seconds
(quietly) informal commentary on style or context of following utterance(s)
? indicates question function (not grammatical interrogative)
[ overlapping speech
[ ] entirely overlapped speech
((…)) unclear speech
Underlining shows unusually heavy emphasis
= shows ‘latching’ (utterances following each other without perceptible pause)
Line numbers indicate speaking turns in a particular extract
The task requires you to analyse the data provided, using at least one (or maximum two) of the
frameworks/approaches that you have encountered in Section 3 of the module. These include:
ethnography (Unit 13)
politeness theory (Unit 14)
intercultural pragmatics (Unit 15)
systemic functional linguistics (Unit 16, Unit 17)
genre analysis (Unit 18).
NB: The terms framework and approach are used interchangeably here as you may come across both in your
reading while preparing for this TMA.
The aim of your analysis is to explain what is going in the interaction and make sense of some assumptions
about the elderly, highlighted by the transcript.
Make your selection of the frameworks/approaches carefully, and consider which would be most suitable
given the nature of the task, the nature of the exchange and the nature of the data that you have been
provided with. Remember that all frameworks/approaches are partial and that all have their strengths and
limitations. Be sure to include a rationale for the frameworks/approaches that you decide to use. Your task is
not to come up with a definitive answer but to provide a persuasive case for what’s going on in the
interaction. The argument(s) you will present needs to be grounded in the evidence available, using
frameworks/approaches and tools that you have encountered in your study of Section 3 of the module. Avoid
making personal judgments about any of the participants or speculate on the outcomes of the interaction
without grounding your points in evidence from the transcript or the additional details you have been given.
You will also need to consider what other types of data you might have liked to consider in addition to the
information given here in order to arrive at an in-depth and holistic understanding of this encounter. You will
need to make a judicious selection from a range of possible data types and sources, but it could be anything
ranging from more information about the encounter itself or the participants, further conversation recordings
or transcripts, non-verbal data, related documentation or specific kinds of observations. In your consideration
of any additional data sources, it will be important to indicate what each could contribute to your analysis of
the encounter