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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 648

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Mutual Understanding in Typologically Distant Languages: Lingua receptiva in Estonian/Russian task-oriented dialogues

Authors: Bahtina, Daria; ten Thije, Jan D.
Submitted by: ten Thije, Jan D. (Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands, The)

Lingua receptiva is a mode of multilingual communication in which speakers of different languages use their own language or variety and have enough competencies to understand each other. These competencies are the ensemble of linguistic, mental, interactional as well as intercultural repertoires that are activated when listeners are receiving linguistic actions in their ‘passive’ language or variety (Rehbein, ten Thije & Verschik, 2012). This concept stems from various studies on mutual intelligibility, intercomprehension, and receptive multilingualism (Gooskens, 2006; ten Thije & Zeevaert, 2007).

Structural similarity and high number of cognates between the languages may foster mutual understanding, a type of multilingualism classified as inherent; in acquired multilingualism interlocutors have to discover links between the two languages (Verschik, 2012). It is hypothesised that the efficiency of acquired intelligibility depends on several factors, such as proficiency in the language of the interlocutor, exposure to that L2, and attitudes. The current experimental research was designed to elicit minimal prerequisites for and effective strategies behind lingua receptiva between Estonian and Russian native speakers in Estonia.

This paper reports on a study consisting of three parts: a socio-linguistic questionnaire, a C-Test (written L2 proficiency test) and a Skype conversation based on the so called task-oriented dialogue. In this experiment, 96 interlocutors were grouped into dyads (38 bilingual Estonian-Russian and 10 respective monolingual control groups) and had to establish common ground. The analysis is focused on alignment strategies (Pickering & Garrod, 2004) combined with the speaker/hearer communicative apparatus in functional pragmatics (Rehbein et.al., 2012). In addition to measuring the factors of influence (L2 proficiency, exposure, and attitudes), the results reveal a set of interactive strategies that are realised as explicit negotiations of discourse and thus help structure mutual understanding. The data show that these strategies, or meta-linguistic devices, vary depending on the individual L2 proficiency as well as the combined proficiency within a dyad. These findings can be applied to a didactic model for enhancing receptive competencies, such as EuroCom, and translated into various language constellations.

References:

Gooskens, C. (2006). Linguistic and extra-linguistic predictors of inter-Scandinavian intelligibility. In: Jeroen van de Weijer & Bettelou Los (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands, 101–113. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Haugen, E. (1987). Blessings of Babel: Bilingualism and language planning. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter: 77-81

Pickering, M. J. and Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (27): 169-225.

Rehbein, J., ten Thije, J.D. and Verschik, A. (2012). Remarks on the Quintessence of Receptive Multilingualism. In ten Thije, J. D., Rehbein, J. and Verschik, A. (Eds.) Lingua Receptiva. Special issue of the International Journal for Bilingualism

Verschik, A. (2012) Practicing Receptive Multilingualism: Estonian-Finnish communication in Tallinn. In: Rehbein, J., ten Thije, J.D. and Verschik, A. (Eds.), Lingua Receptiva (LaRa) Special issue. International Journal of Bilingualism.

Ten Thije, J. D. and Zeevaert, L. (Eds.) (2007). Receptive Multilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.