Cross-modal enactment in bilingual Auslan/English conversational narratives

This thesis uses conversational analysis to explore how Australian cross-modal bilingual hearing adults of deaf parents (CODAs) organise their social behaviour during storytelling-in-interaction. As the CODAs analysed in this study have a native competence in Auslan and English, they can draw upon each language's resources during narrative (re)enactments. While this alone demonstrates the CODA participant's rich semiotic repertoire, in addition to Auslan and English, the CODA conversationalists also have access to a third, potentially hybridised, cross-modal sociolect. Firstly, I developed a new transcription method that facilitates simultaneous production. This transcription method allows for holistic analysis of social action in cross-modal bilingual CODA interaction and can be contracted or expanded upon when applied to other contexts. Secondly, this thesis provides an overall description of the characteristic in-group speech style of the cross-modal bilingual CODAs within this study. Thirdly, by focusing on nine narratives, which include the (re)enactments of hearing, and deaf protagonists, this study qualitatively examines how the contextualisation cues CODA tellers use in narratives facilitate referential tracking in competitive and uncompetitive interactional environments. Revealing that while the CODA tellers use cues from Auslan, English and the potential hybridised cross-modal sociolect, the management of cues is greatly influenced by the interactional setting of the storyworld and the interactional setting of the real world.