Taking offense in ELF dyadic intercultural communication

Abstract

This study first sought to explore the dynamic processes of offense in intercultural communication by 18 Asian university student participants from three Asian countries (China, Thailand, and Indonesia) using English as a lingua franca (ELF). It also examined the factors causing offense in intercultural communication between the Asian university student participants using ELF. Dyadic natural daily ELF conversations of pairs of participants from different countries were audio recorded, and ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA) was applied to reveal the dynamic processes of offense. Participants' divergent views of the same offense-giving acts were then examined to identify individual differences. The results indicate that the offenders' prior behavior and discursive acts could cause offense based on the offendees’ evaluations of the offenders or their behavior, metapragmatic evaluations, or indirectness. Three factors were identified as causing offense in intercultural communication: the contraventions of certain (1) moral orders or (2) social norms due to differences in understanding, and (3) the emergent common ground in communication. In addition, participants offered different views of the same offense-giving act, indicating individual differences in understanding of the moral orders and social norms in intercultural communication.