The Researcher-Participant Role in Languaging: A Case Study of an Older Patient with Parkinson’s Disease

초록

From a Vygotskian sociocultural theory perspective, this study investigates the issue of the researcher- participant role by analyzing the discursive patterns of an older male participant with Parkinson’s disease. This population has typically been considered as having degenerative communicative patterns and regarded as a subfield of dementia or trauma studies, not a subfield of applied linguistics. The participant, Lawrence (pseudonym, age 62), was interviewed 11 times over a period of three months. Each interview focused on Lawrence’s life history by using photo albums and included languaging (a cognitively challenging form of verbalization) activities. The results indicate that 1) the interview topics that Lawrence perceived as meaningful had substantial effects on his verbal behavior and that 2) the dyadic interviewer-interviewee relationship became a flexible one, which enhanced Lawrence’s sense of agency. The results suggest that interviewers should use languaging activities considering the participant’s interest and negotiate the power relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee.

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