| English lingua franca (ELF) interaction, where English is used exclusively by nonnative speakers (NNS), has received relatively little attention in both second language acquisition research and discourse analysis despite its increasing occurrence. The purpose of this study is to investigate how NNS interlocutors, employing English as a lingua franca, resolve interactional troubles which emerge in the talk. The study specifically focuses on other-initiated repair (OIR) (i.e., repair initiated by someone other than the trouble-source speaker) within naturally-occurring international business meetings involving negotiations.; The data set for this study consists of business meetings between Korean sellers and the buyers from seven different countries (i.e., Finland, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand), taking place in one Korean electric company in Seoul, Korea. Approximately 10 hours of seven audio-taped business meetings were transcribed employing the notational system proposed by Atkinson and Heritage (1984). The study examined OIR in terms of its linguistic construction, sequential environment, and interactional function, using conversation analysis as a primary analytical framework.; Based on the number of trouble sources and other-repair initiators involved, three types of OIR sequences have been identified: (1) single OIR, involving a single repair initiator on a single trouble source; (2) multiple OIR, involving multiple repair initiators on a single trouble source; and (3) the repair complex, involving multiple repair initiators on multiple trouble sources which are sequentially intertwined.; The study yields several noteworthy findings. First, in this study's ELF business negotiation, OIRs tend to become lengthy, sequentially complicated, and structurally elaborate. Second, OIRs often perform dispreferred actions such as disagreement and disapproval. Third, OIRs can function to accomplish teamwork such as a team assist. Finally, it is shown that the nonnativeness of the interlocutors is occasionally manifested through OIR sequences.; The study reveals that the basic two-part repair sequence proposed by Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks (1977) is not adequate to describe the complexity of OIRs found in NNS-NNS interaction (cf., Egbert, 2004). Furthermore, the study contributes new insights regarding NNS discourse as a socially-situated interaction and offers a deeper understanding of negotiation activity as a locally-managed communicative practice. |
