Transcript Wolfartsberger

Anita Wolfartsberger
WU – Vienna University of Economics & Business
e-mail: [email protected]
ELF as an intercultural
platform: observations
on business meetings
Second WU Symposium on International Business Communication
LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business - June 11/12, 2009
ELF is important for business
 Non-native speakers nowadays outnumber
native speakers of English
 1,500 million speakers, 400 million L1 speakers
(Crystal 2003: 67-69)
 a shared language  lingua franca
"[t]he increasingly important role that English is now
playing in economic processes, in providing access
to the kind of global knowledges available in English
and the jobs which involve contact with customers
and colleagues for whom English is the only
shared language […]".
(Graddol 2006: 38)
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(In)separability of Language and Culture
"Culture is notoriously difficult to define"
(Spencer-Oatey 2000: 3).
 Linguistic Relativity/Determinism
 "Culture is communication." (Hall 1959: 119)
e.g. von Humboldt, Wittgenstein, 'Sapir-Whorf'
 Opposing position
 "[…] the correlation of 'a language' with 'a
culture' becomes less secure." (Bowers 1999: 221)
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Culture(s) in ELF


pidgin-like, neutral, culture-free
inseparable from and promoting "English" culture
"[…] seeing lingua francas as cultureless ignores the
fact that the speakers creating the lingua franca do
have a cultural background and, in fact, a diversity
of backgrounds." (Louhiala-Salminen et al. 2005: 404).
ELF
corporate
culture
professional
culture
national
culture
'English'
culture
…
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My Study
investigates authentic spoken ELF business interactions
Data
Collection
Transcription
Audiorecording
Field notes
►2 ELF business
meetings
►4 hrs each
►7 participants
Data
Analysis
~ 100,000 words
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Interactional Pragmatics
turn-taking (Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974)
turn A
turn B
floor
speaker 1
turn C
speaker 2
Insights on turn-taking so far from L1 data
"... existing definitions of the turn need to be modified
before being applied to cross- or inter-cultural data."
(Meierkord 2000: section 3.1.3.1)
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Speaker interventions
Intervention behaviour
"[…] any utterance by a member of the group which cuts
into the ongoing speech of another, whether or not it
causes overlapping speech." (Watts 1991: 4)
Speaker interventions in my data …
occur in a variety of forms
fulfill different functions (collaborative & competitive)
" […] an overlap performed to take the turn is not
necessarily uncooperative, but can show involvement
and interest in the successful development of the
conversation." (Cogo 2007:146)
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Ex #1 Collaborative turn completion
S7: … an excellent example (.) where we really
need the services is the instant capacity
Sx: yeah
S7: because we need to look directly into the
<6>domestic systems (.) is the capacity
available or not</6>
S4: <6>into the domestic system if there is a (.)
if there is a capa</6>city (.)
Sx: yah
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Ex #2 Competitive speaker intervention
S1: yes but we will have then in the (.) we will
have one document which combines the the
the <6>document for the (whole sector) of
the organisation</6>
S7: <6>no please no please NO</6> NO
S1: yes the I T strategy document
S7: no no no no=
S1: =yes (.) <1>of course</1>
S7: <1>no</1> (.)
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Ex #3 Clarification request and lexis help
S3: and another H R activity erm beginning january (.) every employ(.) every employee who will give references er (.) to another (.)
person (.) and we w-=
S5: =to give sorry (.) what?
S3: references
S5: uh <5>yeah</5> (.) mhm (.)
S4: <5>mhm</5>
S3: e:r and we will accept this person (.) er he will become our
employer (.) <6>employee (.) sorry</6> (.)
S5: <6>mhm (.) mhm</6>
S3: er and @@ i think i'm telling you to- quite complicated (.) <1>so
if you @@@@@ (.) yeah yeah yeah</1> <2>headhunting</2>
S5: <1>headhunting (.) headhunting of internal operatives</1>
S7: <2>we call it employee</2> looks for another emplo<3>yee</3>
S3: <3>yeah</3> <4>that's it</4>
S5: <4>mhm okay</4>
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Summary and conclusions
 Speaker interventions in my data address special
requirements of lingua franca interactions
 clarification request, lexis help
 Speaker interventions need to be considered in
context
 No clear function-to-form mapping for
collaborative vs. competitive interventions
 Speaker interventions may be 'culture-sensitive'
'intrusive' in English  supportive in other
situations and cultures (Murata 1994: 390)
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Thank you …
… for your attention!
Questions ?
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References I
Bowers, Roger (1999): "Whose culture does the English language learner want? Two case studies". In:
Claus Gnutzmann, ed.: Teaching and Learning English as a Global Language. Tübingen:
Stauffenburg.
Charles, Mirjaliisa (2007): "Language Matters in Global Communication." In: Journal of Business
Communication, Vol. 44, No. 3, 260-282.
Cogo, Alessia (2007): Intercultural Communication in English as a Lingua Franca: a Case Study. PhD
thesis, King's College London.
Crystal, David (2003): English as a Global Language. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Edelsky, Carole (1981): "Who's got the floor?" In: Language in Society 10, 383-421.
Firth, Alan (1996): "The Discursive Accomplishment of Normality. On ‘lingua franca’ English and
conversation analysis". In: Journal of Pragmatics 26, 237-259.
Graddol, David (2006): English Next. British Council.
Gramkow Andersen, Karsten (2001): The Joint Production of Conversation. Turn-sharing and
collaborative overlap in encounters between non-native speakers of English. Aalborg: Centre for
Languages and Intercultural Studies Aalborg University.
Hall, Edward T. (1959): The Silent Language. Garden City & New York: Doubleday.
House, Juliane (2002): "Developing Pragmatic Competence in English as a lingua franca". In: Karlfried
Knapp and Christiane Meierkord (eds.): Lingua Franca Communication. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Kothoff, Helga (1993): "Unterbrechungen, Überlappungen und andere Interventionen. Vorschläge zur
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References II
Louhiala-Salminen, Leena, Mirjaliisa Charles and Anne Kankanraanta (2005): "English as a lingua
franca in Nordic corporate mergers: Two case companies." In: English for Specific Purposes 24,
401-421.
Meierkord, Christiane (2000): "Interpreting successful lingua franca interaction. An analysis of nonnative-/non-native small talk conversations in English". In: Linguistik Online 5, 1/00.
http://www.linguistik-online.de/1_00/MEIERKOR.HTM, accessed Sept 30, 2008.
Meierkord, Christiane (2002): "'Language stripped bare' or 'linguistic masala'? Culture in lingua franca
conversation." In: Karlfried Knapp and Christiane Meierkord, eds.: Lingua Franca Communication.
Frankfurt etc.: Peter Lang.
Murata, Kumiko (1994): "Intrusive or co-operative? A cross-cultural study of interruption". In: Journal of
Pragmatics 21, 385-400.
Oreström, Bengt (1983): Turn-taking in English Conversation". Lund: CWK Gleerup.
Pölzl, Ulrike (2005): Exploring the Third Space: Negotiating Culture in English as a lingua franca. PhD
thesis, University of Vienna.
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff and Gail Jefferson (1974): "A simplest systematics for the
organization of turn-taking for conversation". In: Language 50/4, 696-735.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. (2000): "Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation".
In: Language in Society 29, 1-63.
Seidlhofer, Barbara (2001): “Closing a conceptual gap: the case for a description of English as a lingua
franca”. In: International Journal of Applied Linguistics Vol 11, No. 2, 133-158.
Spencer-Oatey, Helen, ed. (2000): Culturally Speaking. London & New York: Continuum.
Watts, Richard J. (1991): Power in Family Discourse. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.
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