Reconstructing the participants’ treatments of ‘interculturality’: Variations in data and methodologies

Junko Mori

This commentary reviews the five studies of intercultural communication in this special issue by comparing the nature of data analyzed and analytical procedures adopted. The data span from Africa, Asia, to North America, where different cultural, national, or ethnic groups were engaged in different types of social activities; their diversity illustrates how the participants’ ascription of, and resistance towards, their cultural, national, or ethnic identities reflect unique features of the sociohistorical contexts and the nature of their activities. In order to investigate such distinct treatments of interculturality, the researchers seek an analytical lens in the frameworks of ‘interactional sociolinguistics’ (Goffman 1974, 1981; Gumperz 1982, 1992) and ‘membership categorization analysis’ (Sacks 1972, 1992). The metamethodological reflection considers the selection of focal phenomena as well as the use of ethnographic information and the researchers’ own membership knowledge in the process of interpretation, and addresses the issues concerning how to attain an “emic” perspective of cultural difference and sameness.

Quick links
A browser-friendly version of this article is not yet available. View PDF
Antaki, Charles, and Sue Widdicombe
(eds.) (1998) Identities in talk. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Axelson, Elizabeth
(2007) Vocatives: A double-edged strategy in intercultural discourse among graduate students. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi, K
(1994) The location of culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cutler, Cecilia
(2007) The co-construction of Whiteness in an MC battle. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Day, Dennis
(1994) Tang’s dilemma and other problems: Ethnification processes at some multicultural work places. Pragmatics 4.3: 315-336. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998) Being ascribed, and resisting, membership of an ethnic group. In Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 151-170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold
(1967) Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving
(1974) Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Boston: Northeastern University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1981) Forms of talk. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles
(1981) Conversational organization: Interaction between speakers and hearers. New York: Academic Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John
(1982)  Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gumperz, John (1992) Contextualization and understanding. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 229-252.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999) On interactional sociolinguistic method. In S. Sarangi & C. Roberts (eds.), Talk, work, and institutional order: Discourse in medical, mediation, and management settings. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 453-471. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halkowski, Timothy
(1990) ‘Role’ as an interactional device. Social Problems 37: 564-577. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hester, Stephen, and Peter Eglin
(eds.) (1997) Culture in Action: Membership Categorisation Analysis. Boston: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and University Press of America.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higgins, Christina
(2004) Swahili-English bilingual conversation: A vehicle for the study of language ideology. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
(2007) Constructing membership in the in-group: Affiliation and resistance among urban Tanzanians. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian, and Robin Wooffitt
(1998) Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Polity.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koole, Tom, and Jan D. ten Thije
(2001) The reconstruction of intercultural discourse: Methodological considerations. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 571-587.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramsch, Claire
(1993) Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs-Huey, Lanita
(2004) Remembering Chrissy: Engendering knowledge, difference, and power in women’s hair care narratives. Transforming Anthropology 11: 30-42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William
(1972) Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lave, Jane, and Etienne Wenger
(1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepper, Georgia
(2000) Categories in Text and Talk. London: Sage.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene H
(1993) Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in conversation. Text 13: 213-245.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003) Selecting next speaker: The context-sensitive operation of a context free organization. Language in Society 32.2: 177-201.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marlaire, Courtney L., and Douglas W. Maynard
(1990) Standardized testing as an interactional phenomenon. Sociology of Education 63: 83-101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W., and Don H. Zimmerman
(1984) Topical talk, ritual and the social organization of relationships. Social Psychological Quarterly 47.4: 301-316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meeuwis, Michael
(ed.) (1994) Critical perspectives on intercultural communication. Pragmatics 4.3. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994) Leniency and testiness in intercultural communication: Remarks on ideology an d context in intercultural sociolinguistics. Pragmatics 4.3: 391-408.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moerman, Michael
(1988) Talking culture: Ethnography and conversation Analysis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mori, Junko, and Makoto Hayashi
(2006) The achievement of intersubjectivity through embodied completions: A study of interactions between first and second language speakers. Applied Linguistics 27.2: 195-219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishizaka, Aug
(1995) The interactive constitution of interculturality: How to be a Japanese with words. Human Studies 18.2-3: 301-326. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999) Doing interpreting within interaction: The interactive accomplishment of a “henna gaijin” or “strange foreigner.” Human Studies 22.2-4: 235-251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryoo, Hye-Kyung
(2007) Interculturality serving multiple interactional goals in African American and Korean service encounters. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
(1972) On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, pp. 325-345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992) Lectures on conversation,G. Jefferson (ed.) 2 vols, Oxford: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sarangi, Srikant
(1994) Intercultural or not? Beyond celebration of cultural differences in miscommunication analysis. Pragmatics 4.3: 409-427.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A
(1992) Introduction. In H. Sacks, Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005) On integrity in inquiry… of the investigated, not the investigator. Discourse Studies 7 (405): 455-480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shea, David P
(1994) Perspective and production: Structuring conversational participation across cultural borders. Pragmatics 4: 357-389.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sunaoshi, Yukako
(2005) Historical context and intercultural communication: Interactions between Japanese and American factory workers in the American South. Language in Society 34.2: 185-217.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tai, Eika
(1996) Passing as a native in social interaction: Taiwanese in a changing Japanese society. Research on Language and Social Interaction 29.2: 97-123.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ten Have, Paul
(1999) Doing conversation analysis. London: Sage.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Jean, and David Olsher
(2000) Reflections on conversation analysis and nonnative speaker talk: An interview with Emanuel A. Schegloff. Issues in Applied Linguistics 11.1: 111-128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Don H
(1998) Discourse identities and social identities. In Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 87-106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Erica
(2007) Constructing Korean and Japanese interculturality in talk: Ethnic membership categorization among users of Japanese. Pragmatics 17: 1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuengler, Jane, and Barbara Bent
(1991) Relative knowledge of content domain: An influence on native- nonnative conversations. Applied Linguistics 12: 397-415.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koole, Tom, and Jan D. ten Thije
(2001) The reconstruction of intercultural discourse: Methodological considerations. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 571-587.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramsch, Claire
(1993) Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs-Huey, Lanita
(2004) Remembering Chrissy: Engendering knowledge, difference, and power in women’s hair care narratives. Transforming Anthropology 11: 30-42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William
(1972) Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lave, Jane, and Etienne Wenger
(1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepper, Georgia
(2000) Categories in Text and Talk. London: Sage.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene H
(1993) Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in conversation. Text 13: 213-245.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003) Selecting next speaker: The context-sensitive operation of a context free organization. Language in Society 32.2: 177-201.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marlaire, Courtney L., and Douglas W. Maynard
(1990) Standardized testing as an interactional phenomenon. Sociology of Education 63: 83-101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W., and Don H. Zimmerman
(1984) Topical talk, ritual and the social organization of relationships. Social Psychological Quarterly 47.4: 301-316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meeuwis, Michael
(ed.) (1994) Critical perspectives on intercultural communication. Pragmatics 4.3. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994) Leniency and testiness in intercultural communication: Remarks on ideology an d context in intercultural sociolinguistics. Pragmatics 4.3: 391-408.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moerman, Michael
(1988) Talking culture: Ethnography and conversation Analysis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mori, Junko
(2003) The construction of interculturality: A study of initial encounters between Japanese and American students. Research on Language and Social Interaction 36.2: 143-184.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mori, Junko, and Makoto Hayashi
(2006) The achievement of intersubjectivity through embodied completions: A study of interactions between first and second language speakers. Applied Linguistics 27.2: 195-219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishizaka, Aug
(1995) The interactive constitution of interculturality: How to be a Japanese with words. Human Studies 18.2-3: 301-326. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999) Doing interpreting within interaction: The interactive accomplishment of a “henna gaijin” or “strange foreigner.” Human Studies 22.2-4: 235-251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryoo, Hye-Kyung
(2007) Interculturality serving multiple interactional goals in African American and Korean service encounters. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
(1972) On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, pp. 325-345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992) Lectures on conversation, G. Jefferson (ed.) 2 vols, Oxford: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sarangi, Srikant
(1994) Intercultural or not? Beyond celebration of cultural differences in miscommunication analysis. Pragmatics 4.3: 409-427.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A
(1992) Introduction. In H. Sacks, Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005) On integrity in inquiry… of the investigated, not the investigator. Discourse Studies 7 (405): 455-480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shea, David P
(1994) Perspective and production: Structuring conversational participation across cultural borders. Pragmatics 4: 357-389.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sunaoshi, Yukako
(2005) Historical context and intercultural communication: Interactions between Japanese and American factory workers in the American South. Language in Society 34.2: 185-217.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tai, Eika
(1996) Passing as a native in social interaction: Taiwanese in a changing Japanese society. Research on Language and Social Interaction 29.2: 97-123.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ten Have, Paul
(1999) Doing conversation analysis. London: Sage.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Jean, and David Olsher
(2000) Reflections on conversation analysis and nonnative speaker talk: An interview with Emanuel A. Schegloff. Issues in Applied Linguistics 11.1: 111-128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Don H
(1998) Discourse identities and social identities. In Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in talk. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 87-106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Erica
(2007) Constructing Korean and Japanese interculturality in talk: Ethnic membership categorization among users of Japanese. Pragmatics 17:1.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuengler, Jane, and Barbara Bent
(1991) Relative knowledge of content domain: An influence on native- nonnative conversations. Applied Linguistics 12: 397-415.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue