Saturday 12:30 - 1:20 PM
Ume Flower
Conversation strategies and cultural awareness: an observational approach

This workshop presentation is based upon the premise that by becoming aware of the strategies used in conversation, speakers can become more sensitive to the role these play in cross-cultural misunderstandings and thereby be less judgmental and more accommodating to their conversational partners.  One way of raising awareness of these issues is by systematically observing behavior in conversations. In the classroom, students can be encouraged, by means of observational tasks, to analyze their own conversational strategies. These later can then be compared to those they observe among speakers from other cultural groups (racial, gender, occupational, age-based). This work forms a practical basis for discussing issues of culture and language. 
In this workshop, participants will experience this approach by participating in observational tasks and follow-up discussions.