On the Characteristics of Native and Non-native Speakers' Interactions in English Tutoring on the Telephone

Abstract

The current study is an investigation of telephone tutoring within the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA). In this paper, I demonstrate that the beginnings of native speaker-nonnative speaker telephone conversations display distinct characteristics in relation to the interactional context of English tutoring. One major finding of the current study concerns the NNS characteristics that are not found in NS telephone conversation: the non-reciprocality of 'how are you' exchange, the formulaic use and a lack of variety in response to 'how are you' inquiry, and the use of passing turn 'yeah'. The current data also show that the NNSs have a tendency to bypass introduction of the first topic, which is echoed in their overall passiveness in initiating a new sequence and dependence on the initiative of the NS tutor. The importance of this paper is to provide new data on English tutoring on the telephone and a description of the actual conduct of the NNS tutees in telephone conversation. The current findings on the NNS characteristics have several important pedagogical implications such as ESL textbook development for more natural telephone conversations (Wong 2002) and test design for interactional competence (Young and He 1998).