Overlaps in collaboration adjustments: A cross-genre study of female university students’ interactions in American English and Japanese
Lala U.Takeda
Showa Women’s University
Abstract
This study examines collaborative utterance overlaps in American English and Japanese interactions between the
same participants in two genres, conversation and problem-solving tasks, from the perspective of metacommunication. Quantitative
and qualitative analyses indicated that participants’ use of overlap varies in frequency and function by genre. In conversation
tasks, speakers of both languages used overlaps to maintain coherence and keep the story on track. In problem-solving tasks,
American English overlaps conveyed agreement with or acceptance of the proposed idea, whereas Japanese overlaps in this genre
conveyed common understanding. Participants attended to situational adjustment, and the development of collaboration in
interactions differed by context and genre depending on the purpose of the conversation and the amount of information shared by
participants. These results suggest the importance of teaching students how to use overlaps in both American English and Japanese
interactions to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the cultural nuances of collaboration.
Several Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in my classes have experienced difficulty responding to
native English-speaking interlocutors at the right time during conversations in American English. As American English speakers may
provide few of the backchannels that Japanese speakers are used to (i.e., continuing to acknowledge the content or context of a shared
topic), and especially if their interlocutor remains silent, Japanese speakers may even doubt whether their conversation partner is
listening at all. This experience shows that Japanese speakers need to adopt different conversational attitudes when interacting in
English and Japanese, at least in certain situations. However, this may not apply to all genres and types or contexts of conversation;
when Japanese people talk in Japanese or English, there are various methods of interaction, including overlaps that vary by genre and
the relationship between interlocutors. This also pertains to situations in which English speakers speak American English or
Japanese, as well as to situations in which speakers of other languages speak in their mother tongue or their non-native
languages.
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