This document summarizes a webinar on intercultural communication and pragmatics. The webinar addressed how learners transfer communication styles from their native language which can lead to misunderstandings in English. It provided examples of appropriately and inappropriately expressing disagreement based on the relationship and cultural norms. The webinar advocated a pragmatics approach where learners analyze language functions within cultural contexts to develop awareness of differences between cultures.

1. “We need intercultural communication training because they don’t understand us!”Teaching culture with a pragmatics approach Dr. Sabrina Mallon-Gerland Besig Webinar 30 September 2010

4. How can I get commitment when I disagree?

6. Softened pre-disagreeing act should be followed by tentavised act of disagreeing

8. Request for help to entertain visitors: long, detailed, confusing (colleague to colleague) Uh just now but I asked uh to face a major challenge today and I hope you can help me out. Uhm as you know we a customer visit today in our company and it’s a major potential customer with a major project and uh the plan was that I have the greeting and then then to have a company tour from 10-12 o’clock and afterwards I would invite them for lunch and in the afternoon there should be the customer meeting and uh which I planned to attend. But we have a difficulty in another project and as you know we’re working since 2 years there and the only person to solve the difficulties uh in the planned timeframe is me so I have to look for someone to replace me uh with the customer group and after uh evaluating all the alternatives you’re the only alternative for this because you speak English better than everyone else here and uhm you’re available for this. I know you have a lot of overtime as the others as well so I asked you for some help in this difficulty.

9. Why? L1 ->L2 transfer: At a certain level of ability, learners begin to transfer L1 pragmatic knowledge of functions to L2 pragmatic performance. Learner assumption: Universality in the way speech acts /functions are performed ELT course materials Minimal explicit input Minimal reference to linguo-cultural differences

12. I would do X vs. I would like to do X

14. Awareness raising discussion questions: What are all the ways one could disagree? Organise your list in terms of appropriate to inappropriate How do the choices of words help convey appropriate to inappropriate acts of disagreeing? How do these acts differ/resemble your native language? Would your list change if the addresseewas a friend/boss/client? Compare your list with your teacher‘s list. How does your teacher‘s list compare to yours? Are there any disagreeing examples you would never use? Why?

15. References Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words (second edition ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978, 1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. Grundy, P. (1995). Doing Pragmatics Edward Arnold Hickey, L., & Stewart, M. (Eds.). (2005). Politeness in Europe (Vol. 127): Multilingual Matters. Leech, G. N. (1983). The Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman. Searle, J. R. (1975). Indirect Speech Acts. In Cole & Morgan (Eds.), Speech Acts (pp. 59-82). Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000). Rapport Management: A Framework for AnaylsisCulturally Speaking. London: Contiuum. Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics London Longman