Cross-cultural pragmatic failure in computer-mediated communication

Baumer, Martina and van Rensburg, Henriette (2011) Cross-cultural pragmatic failure in computer-mediated communication. Coolabah, 5. pp. 34-53.

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Abstract

The study reported in this paper examines the occurrence of cross-cultural misunderstandings in computer-mediated communication (CMC). CMC has become a part of many people’s everyday life; rules of language practice such as politeness and other characteristics of relational communication are blurred. The study will expose subtle
conducts that are language and culture specific. It will further explore how these social and culture factors influence language use of native and non-native English speaking national and international postgraduate Education students. In particular, the positive and negative tactics and the depiction of relational regularities and patterns prove to be useful to uncover cross-cultural interactions. Questions that arise are: What is considered as polite and
acceptable and what is rude and intolerable in CMC? Is politeness a luxury we no longer can or want to afford? How is this affecting cross-cultural communication and negotiation in CMC?

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Item Type:	Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	© 2011 Martina Baumer & Henriette van Rensburg. This text may be archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, provided that the author and journal are properly cited and no fee is charged. COOLABAH, ISSN 1988-5946, is the official journal of the Observatori: Centre d' Estudis Australians - The Australian Studies Centre at the Universitat de Barcelona.
Faculty / Department / School:	Historic - Faculty of Education
Date Deposited:	03 Apr 2012 23:03
Last Modified:	09 Sep 2014 22:24
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cross-cultural; CMC; cross-cultural pragmatic failure; computer-mediated communication; politeness
Fields of Research :	08 Information and Computing Sciences > 0805 Distributed Computing > 080503 Networking and Communications 20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200209 Multicultural, Intercultural and Cross-cultural Studies 20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2004 Linguistics > 200401 Applied Linguistics and Educational Linguistics
Socio-Economic Objective:	C Society > 95 Cultural Understanding > 9502 Communication > 950201 Communication Across Languages and Culture
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/18369

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