An emic approach to the investigation on facework in academic disagreement among non-native university students in Hong Kong

Abstract

In parallel with the global spread of English in the past few decades, attention to the pragmatic use of English in intercultural settings has also soared (Culpeper, Mackey, & Taguchi, 2018; Kecskes, 2014). Yet, learning the social language use in a range of situations remains as one of the most challenging obstacles in foreign language acquisition even for advanced learners (Ishihara & Cohen, 2014), because it is not as “explicable or quantifiable as grammar and lexis” (McConachy, 2008, p. 124). This implies that with the progression of internationalization in academia (Mauranen, 2012), nonnative speakers at tertiary institutions might also encounter various conflicting contexts. Research reports that even though speakers are aware of the pragmatic differences, they may intentionally avoid conforming to their target community norm or choose to act according to their L1 norm, when values underlying the L2 use do not match the values of their L1 use (Ishihara & Tarone, 2009; Kim, 2014; Norton, 2000). One of the attributes for such personal conflict is the notion of face (Haugh, 2007). However, students are often required to confront face-threats in academic context, such as when expressing oppossional ideas, because they are generally evaluated for their demonstration of effective critical thinking skills (Tannen, 2002). Putting together the growth of nonnative student population and the common academic evaluation of face-threatening act, this study will investigate nonnative university students’ perception of expressing disagreements at an English medium university in Hong Kong. Although academic writing has been extensively researched for many decades in the past, research on the oral component of academic performance is rather scarce (Mauranen, 2012). Added to this, past studies on disagreement and facework have predominantly focused on participants’ linguistic data, while such complex, sensitive and personal phenomenon can only be understood by entering into the participants’ inner perspective (Patton, 2015). This is an interpretive, qualitative research, taking a phenomenological perspective in investigating university students’ lived experience of facework. It adopts a corpus-based approach, using Conversation Analysis and Rapport Management Theory as analytical tools. A pilot study was conducted using two corpora from different contexts. Approximately three hours of group discussions were collected for each corpus. Total of 70 students participated in discussion, out of which 9 have been interviewed. While the corpus analysis provided linguistic and interactional features, the interview data served to unveil the insider’s view, providing a more holistic understanding of facework enactment. Findings from this research is likely to advance our current knowledge on how ‘face’ shapes our language and how it is made visible in interaction. Based on this pilot study, some modifications will be made for the final research. This study may also provide educators with linguistic features that are used in nonnative students’ academic discussion, as well as indicate implications for effective pedagogy in better preparing students for their needs at the tertiary level.