Part of
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Im/politenessEdited by Marina Terkourafi
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 14] 2015
► pp. 187–212
Edited by Marina Terkourafi
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 14] 2015
► pp. 187–212
Interactional competence and politeness
Native and non-native perceptions of collaborative talk in Spanish
Few studies in politeness research have examined perception, and even fewer have examined perception at the level of discourse. Salient characteristics of discourse, turn-taking and collaborative talk have been linked to politeness. This study approaches collaborative talk from an unexplored perspective: experimental testing of speaker perception of collaborative talk according to the features of content and timing. This study quantitatively compared native and non-native perceptions of dialogues in Spanish, employing a new aural task which presented listeners with a turn followed by multiple possible responses. The instrument measured the perceived appropriateness of content (matched vs. unmatched) and timing in overlap, and how additional factors influenced perception. Evaluation of collaborative talk was influenced by different features for natives and non-natives.
References (54)
Bachman, L.F. 1990. Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford: OUP.
Bardovi-Harlig, K. 2010. Exploring the pragmatics of interlanguage pragmatics: Definition by design. In Pragmatics Across Languages and Cultures, A. Trosborg (ed.), 219–259. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 
. 2011. Assessing familiarity with pragmatic formulas: Planning oral/aural assessment. In Pragmatics: Teaching Natural Conversation, N. Houck & D. Tatsuki (eds), 7–22. Crofton MD: Capitol Communication Systems.
Bardovi-Harlig, K., Mossman, S. & Vellenga, H.E. 2014. The effect of instruction on pragmatic routines in academic discussion. Language Teaching Research 18, 1–27.
Baxter, R. Forthcoming. Co-constructing turns as Interactional Competence: Collaborative Turn Sequences in L1 and L2 Spanish. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
Berry, A. 1994. Spanish and American turn-taking styles: A comparative study. In Pragmatics and Language Learning Monograph Series, Volume 5, L.F. Bouton & Y. Kachru (eds), 180–190. Urbana-Champaign, IL: Division of English as an International Language.
Brown, P. & Levinson, S.C. 1978. Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In Questions and Politeness, E.N. Goody (ed.), 56–289. Cambridge: CUP.
. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: CUP.
Canale, M. 1983. From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In Language and Communication, J. Richards & R. Schmidt (eds), 2–27. London: Longman.
Canale, M. & Swain, M. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1: 1–47.
Carrell, P.L. & Konneker, B. 1981. Politeness: Comparing native and nonnative judgments. Language Learning 31: 17–30.
Cekaite, A. 2007. A child’s development of interactional competence in a Swedish L2 Classroom. The Modern Language Journal 91: 45–62.
Celce-Murcia, M. 2008. Rethinking the role of communicative competence in language teaching. In Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning, E. Alcón Soler & M.P. Safont Jordà (eds), 41–57. Dordrecht: Springer.
Chang, W.M. & Haugh, M. 2011. Evaluations of im/politeness of an intercultural apology. Intercultural Pragmatics 8: 411–442.
Cohen, A.D. & Ishihara, N. 2013. Pragmatics. In Applied linguistics and Materials Development, B. Tomlinson (ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Dings, A. 2007. Developing Interactional Competence In a Second Language: A Case Study of a Spanish Language Learner. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. 1992. Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461–490.
Ford, C.E. & Thompson, S.A. 1996. Interactional units in conversation: Syntactic, intonational and pragmatic resources for the management of turns. In Interaction and Grammar, E. Ochs, E. Schegloff & S.A. Thompson (eds), 34–184. Cambridge: CUP.
Gupta, S., Walker, M. & Romano, D. 2007. How rude are you?: Evaluating politeness and affect in interaction. In Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, Vol. 4738, A.R. Paiva, R. Prada & R. Picard (eds), 203–217. Berlin: Springer.
Hall, J.K. 1995. (Re)creating our worlds with words: A sociohistorical perspective of face-to-face interaction. Applied Linguistics 16: 206–232.
He, A.W. & Young, R. 1998. Language proficiency interviews: A discourse approach. In Talking and Testing: Discourse Approaches to the Assessment of Oral Proficiency [Studies in Bilingualism 14], R. Young & A.W. He (eds), 1–24. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Jefferson, G. 1973. A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation: Overlapped tag-positioned address terms in closing sequences. Semiotica 9: 47–96.
. 1983a. Another failed hypothesis: Pitch/loudness as relevant to overlap resolution. Tilburg Papers in Language and Literature 38: 1–24.
. 1983b. On a failed hypothesis: ‘Conjunctionals’ as overlap-vulnerable. Tilburg Papers in Language and Literature 28: 1–33.
. 1986. Notes on ‘latency’ in overlap onset. Human Studies 9: 153–183.
Kasper, G. 1990. Linguistic politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 14: 193–218.
Kramsch, C. 1986. From language proficiency to interactional competence. The Modern Language Journal 7: 366–372.
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: CUP.
Lerner, G.H. 1991. On the syntax of sentences in progress. Language in Society 20: 441–458.
. 1996. Finding ‘face’ in the preference structures of talk-in-interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly 59: 303–321.
. 2004. Collaborative turn sequences. In Conversation Analysis: Studies From the First Generation [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 125], G.H. Lerner (ed.), 225–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Locher, M. & Watts, R. 2008. Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behavior. In Impoliteness in Language: Studies on Its Interplay with Power in Theory and Practice, D. Bousfield & M. Locher (eds), 77–99. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Markee, N. 2000. Conversation Analysis. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Márquez-Reiter, R. & Placencia, M.E. 2005. Spanish Pragmatics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Meier, A.J. 1995a. Defining politeness: Universality in appropriateness. Language Sciences 17: 345–356.
. 1995b. Passages of politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 24: 381–392.
Nguyen, H.T. 2008. Sequence organization as local and longitudinal achievement. Text & Talk 28: 501–528.
Orozco, L. 2006. No me hable de tú despectivo, hábleme de tú correcto. In Líderes Lingüísticos, P. Martín Butragueño (ed.), 131–158. México DF: El Colegio de México.
Pomerantz, A.M. 1978. Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints. In Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, J. Schenkein (ed.), 79–112. New York NY: Academic Press.
. 1984. Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In Structures of Social Action, J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds), 57–101. Cambridge: CUP.
Schauer, G. 2009. Interlanguage Pragmatic Development: The Study Abroad Context. London: Continuum.
Schegloff, E.A. 2000. Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language in Society 1: 1–63.
Schmidt, R. 1983. Interaction, acculturation and the acquisition of communicative competence. In Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition, N. Wolfson & E. Judd (eds), 137–174. Rowley MA: Newbury House.
Schneider, K.P. 2012. Appropriate behaviour across varieties of English. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1022–1037.
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S.W. 2001. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, 2nd edn. Malden MA: Blackwell.
Tannen, D. 1994. Gender and Discourse. Oxford: OUP.
Tokuda, M. 2001. L2 Learners’ Perceptions of Politeness in Japanese: The Evaluations on Non-Native Speaker in L2 Japanese. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hawai’i.
Viejobueno, M., Preston, C.G. & Preston, D.R. 2008. How to be impolite: Rating offensive strategies. In Contributions to the Sociology of Language: Standards and Norms in the English Language, M. Locher & J. Strässler (eds), 367–391. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Walters, J. 1979. The perception of politeness in English and Spanish. In On TESOL ‘79. The Learner in Focus, C.A. Yorio, K. Perkins & J. Schacter (eds), 288–296. Washington DC: TESOL.
Yagi, K. 2007. The development of interactional competence in a situated practice by Japanese learners of English as a second language. In Hawai’i Pacific University TESOL Working Paper Series, T. Nguyen & J. Kirschenmann (eds). Honolulu HI: Hawai’i Pacific University.
Young, R. 1999. Sociolinguistic approaches to SLA. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 19: 105–132.
. 2008. Language and Interaction: An Advanced Resource Book. New York NY: Routledge.
. 2011. Interactional competence in language learning, teaching, and testing. In Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Volume 2, E. Hinkel (ed.), 426–443. New York NY: Routledge.
Young, R. & Miller, E.R. 2004. Learning as changing participation: Discourse roles in ESL writing conferences. The Modern Language Journal 88: 519–535.