Interlanguage Pragmatics - 9780805848908

This edited volume brings conversational analysis into the study of second language pragmatics as an analytic paradigm. A well-regarded team of researchers addresses a difficult area for the interlanguage pragmatics research community--the balance between experimental method and the use of conversational data. Institutional talk provides authentic and consequential talk. The goal of the book is to demonstrate how the investigation of institutional talk balances the researcher's need for comparable and replicable interactions with the need to observe authentic outcomes. The chapters present empirical studies based on quantitative and qualitative analyses, which are carefully illustrated by the real-world variables that each institution controls. The chapters span a range of institutions, including the university writing center, hotels, secondary schools, and employment offices. The variables examined include the traditional ILP variables, such as status, directness, and social distance, as well as new concepts like trust, authority, equality, and discourse style.

The editors, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig and Beverly S. Hartford, are well known in the field of pragmatics, especially for their groundbreaking work in the area of advisor-student interactions. The editors contribute two chapters to the volume, the first and last. The first chapter orients the book by analyzing published research in which pragmatics is studied in the context of institutional talk. The last chapter is a practical guide to institutional research methodology covering ethical considerations, planning observations, and making arrangements at institutions. The editors offer the tools and encouragement to their readers to go out and conduct more research in this important area.

Interlanguage Pragmatics: Exploring Institutional Talk will be of great interest to both researchers and students of interlanguage pragmatics in applied linguistics, TESOL programs, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics.