Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

4 Jagdish Kaur
dialogue that takes place in an academic setting. What all the interactions have in
common however is the fact that the participants concerned used ELF to facilitate
communication with fellow participants of different lingua-cultural backgrounds.
To facilitate analysis of the data, the recordings were transcribed using a
slightly adapted version of the notation system developed by Gail Jefferson (see
Appendix).
3. Analysis
The data was analyzed using conversation analytic procedures. For purposes of
analysis, all instances of recycling some or all of the elements of talk occurring
earlier in an on-going turn or in a preceding turn count as repetition. While
repetition as a means of facilitating understanding was employed in various
contexts, e.g. after lack of uptake, after a minimal response, after an overt display
of misunderstanding etc., this paper will only report on the use of repetition in two
specific contexts, namely, after overlap and after an ‘open’ class repair initiator
(Drew 1997). The former will illustrate how repetition functions to pre-empt
problems of understanding while the latter will provide insight into how the
practice of repeating succeeds in resolving problems of understanding that may
have arisen.
3.1 Repeat after Overlap
The participants of the study, regardless of their lingua-cultural background,
frequently repeated a prior segment of talk that had been produced in overlap. The
following examples illustrate this point:
(1) [T14/SB/C2-M(BUR):K(CAM):S(CAM)/280-285]
01 M: yeah hhh so they: you know er their salary is not- not more than
02 fifteen US dollar per month but outside money is about
03 S: huhhuh [under the table
04 M: → [eight hundred US dollar- eight hundred US dollar-
05 dollar per month are for the lower=
06 S: =ºyeahº
07 M: lower you know rank, for the higher rank they get a lot of money.
In example (1) above, M (Burmese) is relating to S (Cambodian) about the
corrupt practices within the civil service in her country. In line 2, she uses the
phrase ‘outside money’ and is in the midst of telling S how much bribe is received
by a government officer on the average when S chips in with an alternative term,
i.e. ‘under the table’ (line 3), to possibly display his understanding of her use of
the term ‘outside money’. S’s contribution or interruption as the case may be
overlaps with M’s on-going turn in which the amount of bribe received is
indicated (line 4). M’s immediate repeat of the amount, i.e. ‘eight hundred US
dollar’ following the overlap suggests that she is orientating to the overlap as