Communication accommodation theory in
action
In 1991, Giles, Coupland, and Coupland expressed the belief that a “more qualitative perspective” would be necessary in order to obtain more diverse and clarifying explanations of the behaviors presented within varying contexts. They referred to this as “the applied perspective” that showed accommodation theory as a vital part of day-to-day activity as opposed to solely being a theoretical construct. They sought to “demonstrate how the core concepts and relationships invoked by accommodation theory are available for addressing altogether pragmatic concerns”.[3] For Giles, Coupland, and Coupland, these “pragmatic concerns” were extremely varied in nature.
One of these “pragmatic concerns” included understanding the relational issues that present themselves in the medical and clinical fields, such as the relational “alternatives, development, difficulties, and outcomes,” which affected the patients’ contentment with their medical interactions and whether or not, through these interactions, they agreed with and implemented said health care regimens.
Another of these situations involved the potential options in a legal arena. The way that the judges, plaintiffs, and defendants accommodated themselves to both the situation and the jury could manipulate the jury’s acceptance or rejection of the defendant, and could, thus, control the outcome of the case.
Communication accommodation theory was also found to have a place in media. In regards to radio broadcasting, the alliance of the audience with the broadcaster played an important part in both the ratings that the shows would receive and whether the show progressed or was cancelled.
In the area of jobs and employment, accommodation theory was believed to influence the satisfaction one has with his or her job and the productivity that that person possesses in said job through convergence with or divergence from the co-workers and their work environment.
Accommodation theory also possessed practical applications in the development of learning a second language. This was seen when the student’s education of and proficiency in said language was either assisted or hindered by accommodative measures.
Giles, Coupland, and Coupland (1991) also addressed the part that accommodation theory plays in a situation they called “language switching”, when bilingual individuals must decide which language they should speak when they are in an organizational environment with other bilingual individuals. This can be an incredibly important choice to make, especially in a business setting, because an incorrect judgment in this area of communication could unwittingly promote negative reactions between the two or more parties involved.
In addition, accommodation theory was strongly intertwined with the way an immigrant accepts and is accepted by their host country. An instance of over-accommodation from the immigrating individual can unintentionally damage that person’s sense of individuality while a strong divergence from the immigrating individual from their host culture can prompt the natives of the host country to react negatively to them because of the immigrating individual’s use of divergence.
The final area of practical application, as presented by Giles, Coupland, and Coupland (1991), was that of accommodation theory’s effect on the lives of people with disabilities. Accommodation theory was thought to either aid them by promoting them to “fulfill their communicative and life potentials,” or by hindering them from reaching their full potential by focusing on the disability that made them different rather than the other characteristics that made them similar to their peers.
Despite the fact that communication accommodation theory is theoretical, it has shown itself to be viable by its numerous practical applications.[3]
Shortcomings of CAT
Despite the strengths of the Communication Accommodation Theory, there are short-comings to it. The theory has created scholarly criticism by the three scholars Judee Burgon, Leesa Dillman, and Lesa Stern. These scholars question the “convergence-divergence frame… [and] they believe that conversations are too complex to be reduced simply to the processes of the Communication Accommodation theory. They also challenge the notion that people’s accommodation can be explained by just the practice of [convergence-divergence]” .[9]Questions asked by the scholars were: “what occurs if people both converge and diverge in conversations, are there consequences to the speaker, the listener, is there an influence if race or ethnicity is played in the process?” .[9] It causes conflicts between communicators because the theory relies too heavily on a rational way of communicating. Sometimes we as people do not have a rational way of thinking and this becomes a problem when communicating.
Strengths of CAT
The Communication Accommodation theory has shortcomings and strengths to its practice. The Communication Accommodation theory focuses “on the role of conversations in our lives” .[9] It has been incorporated into “the mass media (Bell, 1991), with families (Fox, 1999), with Chinese students (Hornsey and Gallois, 1998), with elderly (Harwood, 2002), on the job (McCroskey and Richmond, 2000), in interviews (Willemyns, Gallois, Callan, and Pittam, 1997), and even with messages left on telephone answering machines (Buzzanell, Burrell, Stafford, and Berkowitz, 1996)” .[9] The theory tends to be heuristic because it is “expansive enough to be complete, and has been supported by research from diverse authors.” “The theory’s core processes of convergence and divergence make it relatively easy to understand, underscoring the simplicity of the theory” .[9] Communication Accommodation Theory can be applied to virtually any situation in which communication occurs.
Communication accommodation theory among diverse cultural groups[edit]
Intergenerational communications
Researchers of communication accommodation theory who have been interested in conversations between the elderly and the young, actively apply this theory to analyze intergenerational communication situations. Since the aging of population is becoming a serious issue in current society, communication difficulties of older adults and issues like ageismshould be addressed. According to mainstream sociolinguistic studies, age is regarded as a variable only to the extent that it may show patterns of dialectal variation within speech communities across time. However, the existence of potentially important generational differences relating to beliefs about talk, situational perceptions, interactional goals, and various language devices between the young and the elderly are all taken into account as empirical questions in their own right[10] when using communication accommodation theory to explore intergenerational communication problems and improve effectiveness. Previous researchers have also developed models such as the communication predicament model of ageing, [11]and the communication enhancement model of ageing, [12]to point out numerous consequences brought by both negative and positive attitudes towards aging.
Young-to-elderly language strategies
Even though young people are more likely to perceive the old by multiple stereotypes, the elderly are negatively evaluated in most situations,[13] resulting in a reduction of meaningful communication.To further illustrate this, Ryan et al. devised a typology of four young-to-elderly language strategies[11] in his research concerning psycholinguistic and social psychological components of communication with the elderly, addressing a problem for the elderly that they are vulnerable to the social and psychological circumstances of isolation, neglect,and negative stereotyping. However,it is not appropriate to see problematic intergenerational talk as a one-sided affair since both the young and the old can be responsible for miscommunication and unsuitable accommodation.
The first of these is characterized as overaccommodation due to physical/sensory handicaps, which happens when speakers talk to handicapped recipients, usually those with hearing impairment,and adapt their speech beyond the optimal level.
The second strategy is labelled as dependency-related overaccommodation, which refers to overbearing, excessively directive and disciplinary speech to the elderly. "It was conjectured that this strategy is encoded as one of the means by which a younger person can control the relationship and induce the elderly individual to become dependent on the former”.[10]
Age-related divergence is the third strategy. This tenet proposes that young speakers may seek to amplify the distinctiveness of their own social group by purposefully acting in ways that differ from their stereotype of old speakers.[10] Older speakers might be seen as in physical and mental decline; slowing down with age and unable to keep pace with the current social norms. These young speakers, attempting to differentiate themselves from this image, will talk faster, use fashionable colloquialism and slang, and express more "modern" ideas and values in their communication with seniors.
The fourth strategy is intergroup overaccommodation and it is considered one of the most pervasive of young-to-elderly language strategies. The "simple perception of an addressee's social category membership being old - and, independently of a particular handicap (if any), considerations of dependency and in-group symbolization are sufficient to invoke negative physical,social, and psychological inferences for many younger people."[10]
Communication between old and young people in various relationships
Giles has studied the interaction of young and elderly persons in business settings using communication accommodation as a theoretical framework. Findings demonstrated that elderly persons tend to be less accommodating than their younger counterparts. Findings also demonstrated that, for example, in business settings, one is much more likely to accommodate and converge to the language of a superior, such as a manager, than to someone with less or equal amount of superiority, such as a co-worker. While several other factors came into play, convergence, and divergence portions of this theory were used in interpreting and explain this phenomenon.[14]
The prevalence of and consequences for ageism and ageist language in intergenerational interactions in health care contexts such as hospitals and long-term care facilities have also been discussed.[15] Factors such as negative ageist stereotypes and unique features of the older adult patient-physician interaction can result in miscommunication between physicians and patients.[16]Moreover,individuals are more likely to use patronizing language styles, [17] to evaluate patronizing communication positively, and less likely to respond assertively to ageist language in hospital settings than in community dwellings .[18] In the domain of mental health care for older individuals, research also suggests that the elderly are systematically disadvantaged when interacting with mental health professionals.[19]
Communication accommodation theory in intercultural communications
Since communication accommodation theory applies to both interpersonal and inter-group communication one of the fields in which it has been most applied has been in intercultural communication. Within this field it has been applied to explain and analyze communication behaviors in a variety of situations, such as interactions between non-native and natives during second language acquisition processes, and interactions between inter-ethnic groups.
Studies[20]show the comparison of communication accommodation in foreign countries between tourists and locals. In countries with heavy tourism, many being Third World, it is common that the actual tourists have little to no competency in, or desire of having competency in the language and style of communication of the local natives. On the other hand, the country's local economy as well as the livelihood of its citizens, heavily depends on these tourists. Therefore, there is a great need to accommodate the communication styles of the tourists.
Communication between native and non-native language speakers in second language acquisition
Non-Native Language Speakers
The input that non-native speakers (NNS) obtain from their interlocutors during second language acquisition is crucial in their process of language learning .[21] It has been noted, for instance, that as the similarity attraction theory predicts, non-native speakers (NNS) are more likely to converge towards the native speaker’s (NS) language when they identify him or her as similar to themselves: “When an NNS and an NS share important social identities, ethnic or not, the NNS will be more likely to converge towards the NS’s language use”.[21] In a study conducted by Young (1998) for instance, high proficiency Chinese English Language Second Speakers interviewed by individuals with a higher degree of social convergence in terms of ethnicity, sex, occupation, educational level, place of origin, and age were significantly more likely to converge to their interlocutor’s standard English plural conjunction than those who were interviewed by subjects that differed more in terms of these social characteristics.[21] Unlike previous studies that focussed mostly in ethnic solidarity to explain language variations in second language learners (Beebe and Zuengler, 1983), this later study proved that “it is not interlocutor ethnicity alone that causes linguistic variation, but a collection of attributes (of which one is ethnicity) by which interlocutors assess their relative similarity to each other... providing clear support for the similarity-attraction aspect of CAT”.[21]
On the other hand, like the inter-group distinctiveness theory argues, several studies have revealed that when second language learners feel their social identity is threatened due to patronizing behavior towards their ethnic group they are more likely to engage in divergence. In a study conducted by Zuengler (1982) amongst Spanish and Greek speakers learning English, subjects were asked both ethnically threatening and neutral questions by a native English speaker. Those subjects that answered the ethnic-threatening question in a more personal form were noted to decrease the “native English-like pronunciations of the sounds” in their answers.[21] Similar results were obtained in a study conducted by Giles and Bourhis conducted in Wales. In this study Welshmen with strong ties to their nation and their language who were learning Welsh were asked questions about methods of second language acquisition. In this study the questions were asked by an English speaker with an RP-sounding accent “who at one point arrogantly challenged their reasons for what he called ‘a dying language which had a dismal future’”.[6] In response to this question, which greatly threatened their identity and intergroup distinctiveness, the informants diverged considerably by strengthening their Welsh accents and using Welsh .[6]
Native Language Speakers
Meanwhile it has been noted that native language speakers frequently engage in “foreign talk” (FT) when interacting with second language learners. In this type of talk native speakers adopt features such as “slower speech rates, shorter and simpler sentence, more question and question tags, greater pronunciation articulation” amongst others.[21] This is done in order to increase efficiency, specially when the native speakers perceive the non-native speakers as less competent communicators,[21] or (as the similarity-attraction theory predicts), in order to increase attraction. In fact, Foreign Talk often contains features that mirror the mistakes made by non-native speakers in order to make speech more similar, and hence “NS may include ungrammatical features in their FT”.[21] As predicted by the inter-group distinctiveness theory, native speakers might also choose to refrain from engaging in FT or might use divergence, whenever they wish to maintain group distinctiveness, either because they have a lower perception of the other group, they feel threatened by them, or they wish to displayethnocentricity.[21]
Immigrants
Immigrants tend to converge according to what they perceive to be the prototypical behaviors of their new group, or according to the norms that they infer make part of their new environment .[22] Meanwhile their new communities “also may hold norms, about how immigrants do and/or should use the majority language” and “convergence that is perceived by members of the host community as inappropriate to the speaker’s status, the relationship, or the norms of the situation, may be labelled as ingratiating, condescending or gauche” .[22]This might lead to a negative appraisal of the immigrant speaker. For this reasons, Gallois and Callan (1991) suggest that it is important to teach immigrants about the norms that govern convergence in each community. Although other personal motives govern immigrant’s linguistic choices later on, their expectations and the situational norms that they are able to perceive are what guide their linguistic choices when they are new to a culture.[22]
"Speak Arabic please!" A case study in communication accommodation[edit]
In Sonia S’hiri’s “Speak Arabic please!: Tunisian Arabic Speakers’ Linguistic Accommodation to Middle Easterners” she describes how speakers of Tunisian Arabic converge to the “Sharqi” or “ Middle Eastern Arabic” of their co-workers.[23]
One of the many ways to divide the Arab world is between the West “Maghreb” and the East “Sharq”. Although there is no official “Sharqi Arabic”, the varieties that are usually associated with “Sharqi Arabic” are Egyptian, Levantine, and Gulf/Iraqi Arabic. Due to Egypt’s dominance of the media and arts, the “Sharqi” Arabic spoken in the region has come to be “perceived by Tunisians, as “lighter”, more poetic and artistic, more humorous, more romantic and even more beautiful than the local [Tunisian] variety”.[23] Again, because of its dominance in the media and the arts, Arabic speakers throughout the Arab world are much more familiar with “Sharqi” varieties than they are with “Maghrebi” varieties. A common yet incorrect belief about speech interactions in the Arab speaking world is that when speakers of different varieties of the language come into contact with one another, the default language for communication isModern Standard Arabic.
In her study conducted in London, S'hiri examined the social reasons for Tunisian Arabs to converge linguistically to speakers of "Sharqi Arabic". The data she found also gave ample evidence to show that code-switching into pure fusha for communication is a misconception. S’hiri recorded five Tunisian Arabic speakers (M1, M2, W1, W2, and W3) who worked at two different broadcasting companies and found that they did indeed converge linguistically to their Sharqi co-workers. They did not however, resort solely to fusha. S’hiri found that when interacting with speakers of “Sharqi” Arabic, her Tunisian informants used linguistic features and lexical items characteristic of the "Sharqi" variety, some English words, (instead of theFrench words often used in Tunisian Arabic speech) in addition to switching to fusha. S'hiri found that many of her informants were proud of both their Tunisian variety of Arabic as well as their ability converge linguistically and even posits the idea of "showing off" as a goal of linguistic convergence".[23] Her findings lead to an interesting sort of paradox. Although the Tunisian Arabs abandon their own variety of the language, they do not experience a feeling of loss of identity, because the ability to code-switch, perceived as prestigious in their culture, makes part of their positive identity. Despite their inner feelings of pride for their own group, by accommodating to the Sharqi speakers the Tunisians are setting aside their ingoup identity in order to "promote their extended ethnicity as members of an Arab nation instead of just as Tunisians."[23] In terms of accommodation theory, Tunisians in London can be seen as the “ingroup” trying to assimilate to the “outgroup”.[23]
When her informants were asked why they had switched to the “Sharqi” variety, they all agreed it was psychologically motivating, because it allowed them to get closer to their interlocutors. M1 added that this allowed him to convey friendliness to his interlocutors, to reduce differences and avoid rejection.[23] Informant W2 “Found that using TA [Tunisian Arabic] is an obstacle to getting closer to people. She felt excluded especially at the beginning since Sharqis seemed to avoid her because they believed she would be difficult to understand”.[23]W2 also “Claims that the level of readiness of Sharqis to understand her determines whether she uses TA with them or not. She wants to avoid ridicule”.[23]
Communication accommodation theory and new media
As communication accommodation theory explains “the cognitions and motivations that underlie interactants’ communication” with context and identity salience, it’s feasible to apply it to new media related settings. Even though research in this field is still at its early stage, interesting case studies have appeared in recent years.
Studies have investigated possible accommodative tendencies of librarians when faced with cyberlanguage use by the patron through instant messaging technology. Since use of cyberlanguage in VRS(virtual reference services) conversations has been suggested as one possible way to strengthen patron relations, patrons who are satisfied with their interaction with a librarian who use cyberlanguage may be more willing to return. However, the result suggests that patron’s use of cyberlanguage has no influence on a librarian’s use of cyberlanguage and surprisingly convergence doesn’t happen .[25]Nevertheless, accommodation of communication styles do happen in other computer-mediated communicationcircumstances. In group brainstorming conversations, Chinese participants are likely to become as responsive as Americans when working in mixed-culture groups and more talkative when using lean medium .
Other case studies
Giles has also looked at the actions and attitudes in the public's interaction with police officers, using accommodation theory. Relational and identity aspects of this theory help to illustrate the interaction patterns that exist between the public and the police in the various situations in which these interaction take place. This study looked at both the accommodation patterns of the officers and the public with whom they were dealing.
In this case of policemen and accommodation, it is important for men and women of the force to find a stable balance between accommodating (displaying care, empathy, respect etc.,) and keeping a firm stance of authority. Studies show that the public believes policemen, overall, should work on being more community oriented and accommodating to all of its citizens, not only to reduce tension, anxiety, and stress, but to build trust and satisfaction between both parties. There are current, as well as up-and-coming community-based police programs to give citizens a more "informal," "down to earth," view of their commanding officers. However, even with all of these accommodations being made, it is necessary for there to remain an understanding of the higher power, so that in the case in life-threatening situations, men and women of the police force can continue to actively and effectively uphold society
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