'One Gets Along Enough To Make It Work': A Case Study Of Local Context Prior To Miscommunication Between A Hearing-Impaired Man And His Spouse

Few studies have been focused on the local contexts in the conversation prior to hearing-impaired (HI) individuals' 'What?' and 'Where?'-type clarification requests, other-initiations of repair (OI-actions). To address this gap, the present study utilized conversation analysis (CA) and video recordings of one married couple (a severely to profoundly HI individual and his spouse) as data. The analysis revealed that OI-actions occurred in irregular frequency and that the HI recipient utilized OI-actions as any interactant, but the ability of the HI recipient to continue a conversation was susceptible to distraction. Several local contexts at risk for HI recipient as well as other reasons for the HI individual to use OI-actions were found. Furthermore, the analysis revealed what type of OI-actions were used in certain contexts. This study suggests that clinicians adopt an interaction orientation that is client-pair centred and further, that they incorporate an intervention that is oriented to conversation in their clinical work.