Understanding first-contact encounters in online communication among ELF users: Pre-pandemic observations of transcultural and strategic language use

Blagoja Dimoski, Satomi Kuroshima, Jody Yuri Yujobo, Tricia Okada, Rasami Chaikul

19th AsiaTEFL International Conference (online)

Asia TEFL

GLA University, Mathura-281406, India

https://asiateflindia2021.wordpress.com/

The purpose of this research was to investigate transcultural aspects and communicative strategic use of language and other semiotic resources of the participants by addressing the following research questions: (1) What kind of communication strategies do Japanese students and interlocutors use during first-contact ELF online communication? and (2) What are the transcultural implications of the communication strategies used by both interlocutors? Taking into consideration the positionality and the cultural background of the researchers, online communication is analyzed through a transcultural framework. The findings show that participants often relied more on one-way elicitation of cultural information than attempting to build social relationships such as requesting, inviting, or proposing to do something together. Interlocutors who have lower English proficiency show evidence of less mutual knowledge about one’s culture. As a result, this style of interaction limits dyads to engage in conversational activities of informing each other's culture.

Principal Investigator.
This is supported by JSPS Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (18K00753)