Mutual Understanding In Oral Communication Between Native And Non-native Speakers-A Conversation Analytical Scientific Study Of Methods To Achieve Mutual Understanding In German-Chinese Tandem Conversations

The thesis analyzes linguistic procedures in oral communication,which are connected to the process of achieving mutual understanding.The basis for the study are authentic tandem language learning conversations between German and Chinese native speakers.Because of the conversation analytical approach,the theoretical part includes phenomena of spoken language.Conversations are organized in turns,which are subject to the rules of the turn-taking system.The speakers can use a set of practices,called repairs,to deal with trouble hearing,speaking or understanding the talk in order to maintain or restore intersubjectivity.The production and reception of utterances is more difficult in a foreign language.Tandem language learning conversations are autonomous learning situations in which both partners aim to improve their skills in a foreign language by helping and correcting each other.Therefore,this situation is particularly suitable to analyze repairs in the process of achieving mutualunderstanding.Due to the particular difficulties which arise between native speakers and non-native speakers,problems of speaking,hearing and understanding are quite frequently dealt with in the form of repairs.Repairs play an important role in the process of achieving mutual understanding,as they provide the speaker with the necessary resources to indicate difficulties and resolve them alone or together.In a simplified form,the achievement of mutual understanding can be explained as a three-step sequence.In a first step,an utterance produces an object of understanding.In the following step,the reaction shows the interpretation of the previous turn.In the third step,the first speaker can now verify or otherwise repair the interpretation and establish intersubjectivity.There is a range of linguistic procedures which can be used to document or verify understanding,to fill in missing information or to resolve misunderstandings.In addition to turn completions and extensions,various forms of questions as well as explanatory sequences and co-constructions are also included.Co-constructions are a particular indicator in a tandem conversations of mutual willingness to cooperate.In the context,the simplified three-step sequence is often more complex.Therefore,some of the linguistic procedures can also have different functions.Turn completions can,for example,predominantly document or verify understanding.The main objective of the study is to provide a structured overview of the repair procedures,which the interlocutors use to deal with linguistic difficulties and problems of understanding and to re-establish mutual understanding.The procedures are explained with the help of selected sequences,which are particularly relevant,in order to provide an overview of the procedures and their use in the context.The first part of the analysis focuses on repairs which are related to problems of speaking.These repairs also allow a transition from the linguistic to the content-related level of an utterance.In the second and more extensive part of the analysis,procedures related to the achievement of understanding are presented in a structural order.In this conversation analytical approach it is the aim to present the methods both context-independent,i.e.as general methods,as well as context-sensitive,which means adapted to the respective conversation situation.The successful outcome of most of the procedures shows that mutual understanding can be achieved due to the willingness to cooperate and the increased effort by the interlocutors.