Pietikainen2017

Pietikainen2017
BibType	PHDTHESIS
Key	Pietikainen2017
Author(s)	Kaisa Sofia Pietikäinen
Title	English as a Lingua Franca in Intercultural Relationships : Interaction, Identity, and Multilingual Practices of ELF Couples
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Tag(s)	EMCA, ELF, Lingua franca, Intercultural communication, Relationships, Identity, Multilingualism
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Year	2017
Language	English
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School	University of Helsinki
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Abstract

This dissertation investigates English as a lingua franca (ELF) in intercultural romantic relationships. The study attempts to unveil how ELF couples succeed in lingua franca communication: What do their interactions reveal about their pragmatic strategies concerning multilingualism, understanding, and silence, and how do they view their language identity?

The data consists of 9h 9min of semi-structured interviews from six couples and 24h 15min of naturally occurring conversations recorded by seven couples. I use conversation analysis (CA) throughout, although the interview data has also undergone content analysis.

The results concerning multilingual practices indicate that ELF couples utilise their multilingual repertoires frequently and for a range of interactional purposes, but also for no apparent reason. This implies that translanguaging within the speakers’ shared range diminishes in interactional value over time and becomes a habituated part of the “couple tongue”.

The frequency of misunderstanding in ELF couple talk is generally in line with previous findings in ELF, but the closeness of the partners is a factor which both helps them understand each other, yet also causes misunderstandings because they expect to understand each other so easily. ELF couples use a vast array of understanding-enhancing practices similarly to ELF speakers in other contexts, but they also resort to extra-linguistic means such as drawing and onomatopoeia.

The ELF couple identity is negotiated and shaped by their shared experiences over time. In this shaping process, the languages the couples use, including but not limited to English, become meaningful as the core around which the shared practice is built. ELF couples identify as English-speaking couples, but multilingualism is also present in their everyday life in their language practices at home and with the surrounding community.

In their conflict interactions, ELF couples orient to noticeable silences as indicating troubles extending beyond disagreements. In addition to indicating a strong disagreement, withholding a response at a transition-relevance place is treated as marking avoidance of self-incrimination, resisting an inappropriate change-of-footing, taking offence, or unsuccessful persuasion. Applying CA to investigating turns that follow noticeable silences is found to be an effective methodology for examining the local inferences of noticeable silences.

In sum, the findings imply that contextual factors such as the intimacy of ELF speakers and their shared history affects their pragmatic strategies; e.g., speakers in family contexts translanguage more freely and use more varied pre-emptive practices to avoid problems of understanding than ELF speakers in more transient contexts. Also, ELF partners identify as English speakers in their own right, and their naturally occurring talk is found to be valid for conversation analytic inquiry of interaction proper. The dissertation attempts to stimulate mutual understanding between ELF research, multilingualism, and CA.

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