What is it about?
Communication of the Czech, English and German university students through English was compared in the following aspects: face-threatening and face-saving acts, implicitness/explicitness, positive/negative politeness, and relational and transactional language functions. Their mutual and pairwise comparisons showed differences in which the surveyed groups varied in their motivations.
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Why is it important?
Czech and German respondents might seem less relational. They tend to avoid ambiguity or misunderstanding and are even ready to pay the price of their face to be able to protect the "truth" in communication (gaining no real advantage by such a choice). The English group always opted for relational answers. As native speakers, they were more consistent about the use of relational/transactional structures and made self-confident pragmatic choices in interactions. The Czechs and Germans applied the effort to sound cooperative and did not exercise the same care and/or self-confidence to protect their own status publicly.
Perspectives
I hope the research into intercultural interactions might cast some light on the current issues in the changing global society. It might help understand why different perceptions of what is considered beneficial in communication - to whom and why - exist, and also support a non-judgmental approach towards statements and stances carried inter-culturally.
Andrea Koblizkova
University of Pardubice
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Managing understanding through English as a lingua franca, Language Learning in Higher Education, September 2018, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/cercles-2018-0017.
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