Conversational Analysis of Chat Room Talk
PhD thesis by Dr. Terrell Neuage, University of South Australia. Available at the National Library of Australia and Amazon.
- Thesis Home
- Abstract (PDF)
- Glossary (PDF)
- Introduction (PDF)
- Methodology (PDF)
- Literature Review (PDF)
- Case Studies:
- Discussion (PDF)
- Conclusion
- Postscript (PDF)
- O*D*A*M (PDF)
- Bibliography (PDF)
- 911
- Thesis Complete
- Appendixes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Note: These links are from early notes and not the final edits, which are available at the University of South Australia only. Not all links are active due to changing domains. Visit https://neuage.co or https://neuage.us.
Constituting the ODAM (Online Discourse Analysis Method)
Published 29/12/2017, available on Amazon.
- Use of mixed linguistic analysis methodology
- Finding strictly regulated language practices
- Main feature of online talk: Open/Creative practices
- Main features of online talk communities – relational talk

Building inwards from the broad user-perspectives of Reader Response, examining chat postings as actively received interpreted “wreaderly” communication, the ODAM has cut four deep and “rich descriptive” wedges from a multi-dimensional, multi-leveled set of chat actions...

Research Questions
- Is meaning communicated in chatrooms?
- How is turn-taking negotiated within chatrooms?
- Are issues of cultural sensitivity as relevant as in face-to-face talk?
- How is electronic chat reflective of current social discourses?
- Will chat become a universally understood language?
Assumptions
- People create a different textual self for the chatroom environment that they are in
- Conversation within chatrooms will change how we come to know others
- ‘Chat’ does not differ from natural conversation
- Observational studies of chatroom conversation can capture some of the adaptations of conversational behaviours
- This work gives us a better understanding of how and why chatrooms are an important area in which to create a new conversational research theory
Books by Terrell Neuage
- Leaving Australia 'Again': Before the After (Amazon Author Page) - Read the first 45 pages for free
- Blogs of Travel 2002 - 2014: Book 1 ($2.99, 837 pages)
- Blogs of Travel 2016 - 2018: Book 2 ($2.99, 852 pages)
- Blogs of Travel 2018 - 2022: Book 3 ($2.99, 845 pages)