Article published In:
(Co-)Constructing Interpersonally Sensitive Activities Across Institutional SettingsEdited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Rosina Márquez Reiter
[Pragmatics and Society 7:4] 2016
► pp. 540–569
Edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Rosina Márquez Reiter
[Pragmatics and Society 7:4] 2016
► pp. 540–569
Negotiating with the Boss
An inter- and cross-cultural perspective on problematic talk
Elicited conversations with participants engaged in a problematic negotiation with their boss were analyzed in groups of native speakers of British English, Chilean Spanish and Swedish, and in groups of Swedish speakers of L2 English and L2 Spanish (longtime residents in their host community and highly proficient in their L2). Two planes of comparison were involved: cross-culturally, addressing differences between the native groups, and, inter-culturally, addressing interaction between natives and non-natives. Results show considerable distance between the three L1 groups, especially regarding how power distance and social distance are managed both by the ‘employees’ and the ‘bosses’. As regards L2 speaker behavior, alignment with target community patterns largely prevails and few instances of L1 transfer occur. Communicative clashes are found to take place more often in the Swedish-Spanish encounters than in the Swedish-English ones, arguably due to the wider cultural distance between the Chilean and Swedish socio-cultures.
References
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen
2001 “Evaluating the Empirical Evidence: Grounds for Instruction in Pragmatics?” In Pragmatics in Language Teaching, ed. by Kenneth E. Rose and Gabriele Kasper, 13–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
2013 “Developing L2 Pragmatics.” Language Learning 631: 68–86.
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana
1987 “Indirectness and Politeness in Requests: Same or Different?” Journal of Pragmatics 11 (2): 131–146.
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper
(eds) 1989 Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson
1978 “Universals of Language Use: Politeness Phenomena.” In Questions and Politeness, ed. by Esther N. Goody, 56–310. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bülow Møller, Anne-Marie
1993 “Negotiating in a Foreign Language.” Hermes, Journal of Linguistics 111: 11–26.
Chen, Rong
2001 “Self-politeness: A proposal.” Journal of Pragmatics 331: 87–106.
Cohen, Andrew D.
2012 “Research Methods for Describing Variation in Intercultural Pragmatics for Cultures in Contact and Conflict.” In Pragmatic Variation in First and Second Language Contexts, ed. by J. César Félix-Brasdefer and Dale April Koike, 271–294. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Coulmas, Florian
1978 „Routineformeln und pragmatische Interferenzen.“ In Kongressberichte der 8. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik Mainz 1977. Vol. 111, ed. by Wolfgang Kühlwein and Albert Raasch, 31–40. Stuttgart: Hochschulverlag.
Council of Europe
2001 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Daun, Åke
1992 “Modern and Modest.” In Culture and Management in the Field of Ethnology and Business Administration, ed. by Annick Sjögren and Lena Janson, 101–111. Stockholm: Stockholm School of Economics, Institute of International Business.
1996 Swedish Mentality. University Park, Penn.: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Dippold, Doris
2011 “Argumentative Discourse in L2 German: A Sociocognitive Perspective on the Development of Facework Strategies.” Modern Language Journal 95 (2): 171–187.
Erman, Britt, Annika Denke, Fanny Forsberg, and Lars Fant
2014 “Nativelike Expression in Long-residency L2 Users: Multiword Structures in L2 English, French and Spanish.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 24 (1): 160–182.
Eemeren, Frans van, and Rob Grootendorst
1983 Argumentation, Communication and Fallacies: A Pragma-dialectical Perspective. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fant, Lars
2007 “Rapport and Identity Management in Spanish Spontaneous Dialogue.” In Research on Politeness in the Spanish-Speaking World, ed. by María Elena Placencia and Carmen García, 335–365. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fant, Lars, Fanny Forsberg, and Carlos Olave Roco
2011 “Cómo pedirle dos días de permiso al jefe: el alineamiento pragmático de usuarios avanzados de EL2 en diálogos asimétricos.” In El diálogo oral en el mundo hispanohablante, ed. by Lars Fant and Ana María Harvey, 219–249. Madrid & Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Vervuert.
2013 “Los límites de la adaptación socioprágmatica en el uso muy avanzado de la L2. Análisis de conversaciones en español entre empleado sueco y jefe chileno.” In Pragmática y comunicación intercultural en el mundo hispanohablante, ed. by María Elena Placencia and Carmen García, 283–314. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Félix-Brasdefer, J. César
2010 “Data Collection Methods in Speech Act Performance: DCTs, Role Plays, and Verbal Reports.” In Speech Act Performance: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues, ed. by Alicia Martínez-Flor and Esther Usó-Juán, 41–56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Forsberg, Fanny, and Lars Fant
2010 “Idiomatically Speaking: The Effects of Task Variation and Target Language on the Use of Formulaic Sequences in High-level Use of French and Spanish.” In Perspectives on Formulaic Language, ed. by David Wood, 47–70. London & New York: Continuum.
Forsberg Lundell, Fanny, and Britt Erman
2012 “Pragmatic Performance of Requests: A Study of Immersed L2 Users of English and French, and Native Speakers.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (6–7): 709–928.
Gille, Johan
2001 Pautas argumentativas en el diálogo espontáneo: Un estudio de conversaciones intra- e interculturales. Doctoral dissertation. Stockholm University, Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies.
Hofstede, Geert, Gert-Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov
2010 Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kasper, Gabriele
1992 “Pragmatic Transfer.” Second Language Research 8 (3): 203–231.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Cathérine
MacIntyre, Peter D.
1999 “Language Anxiety: A Review of the Research for Language Teachers.” In Affect in Foreign Language and Second Language Teaching: A Practical Guide to Creating a Low-anxiety Classroom Atmosphere, ed. by Dolly J. Young, 24–45. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
MacIntyre, Peter D., and Robert C. Gardner
1989 “Anxiety and Second Language Learning: Towards a Theoretical Clarification.” Language Learning 391: 251–275.
Márquez Reiter, Rosina, Isobel Rainey, and Glenn Fulcher
2005 “A Comparative Study of Certainty and Conventional Indirectness: Evidence from British English and Peninsular Spanish.” Applied Linguistics 26 (1): 1–31.
McSweeney, Brendan
2002 “Hofstede’s Model of National Cultural Differences and their Consequences: A Triumph of Faith – a Failure of Analysis.” Human Relations 55 (1): 89–118.
Merkin, Rebecca S.
2006 “Uncertainty Avoidance and Facework: A Test of the Hofstede Model.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 30 (2): 213–228.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J., Phillip Bailey, and Christine E. Daley
1999 “Factors Associated with Foreign Language Anxiety.” Applied Psycholinguistics 201: 217–239.
Porter, Patricia A.
1986 “How Learners Talk to Each Other: Input and Interaction in Task-centered Discussions.” In Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition, ed. by Richard R. Day, 200–222. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.
Schumann, John H.
1978 “The Acculturation Model for Second Language Acquisition.” In Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning, ed. by R.C. Gingras, 27–50. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Scollon, Ron, and Suzanne Wong Scollon
2001 Intercultural Communication. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Spencer-Oatey, Helen
2000 “Rapport Management: A Framework for Analysis.” In Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, ed. by Helen Spencer-Oatey, 11–46. London & New York: Continuum.
2007 “Theories of Identity and the Analysis of Face.” Journal of Pragmatics 291: 649–656.
Toulmin, Stephen E.
1958 The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trompenaars, Fons, and Charles Hampden-Turner
1997 Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Trosborg, Anna
1995 Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Welzel, Christian
2013 Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation. New York & Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
World Values Survey
Accessed 21 September 2015. [URL].
Yates, Lynda, and George Major
2015 “ ‘Quick-chatting’, ‘Smart Dogs’, and How to ‘Say Without Saying’: Pragmatic Learning in the Community.” System 481: 141–152.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Liu, Shuang
2021. Development of English teaching theory and practice research from the cross-cultural perspective. The International Journal of Electrical Engineering & Education ► pp. 002072092110077 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 october 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.