Intercultural pragmatics at work: (Self-)perceptions of intercultural behavior of Chinese and English speakers and interpreters in healthcare interactions

AbstractInterpreters are expected to have an advanced command of not only the vocabulary and grammar of their working languages, but also the pragmatic norms that speakers of their working languages employ in communicative interactions. The aim of this paper is to explore the perceptions and practices of interpreters in relation to intercultural pragmatics at work in healthcare interactions. The paper employs two theoretical frameworks: the first is based on interpretations of behavior according to speakers' discourse-pragmatic features as representative of “high” or “low” context cultures (cf. Hall 1976); the second applies Celce-Murcia's (2007) more refined notion of “communicative competence.” The data sample of this paper focuses on cultural-pragmatic features of two linguistic and cultural groups – 25 Chinese speakers and 24 English speakers – and contrasts their selected responses to five features of Chinese-English interpreted healthcare interactions. Responses from 33 Chinese-English interpreters are matched against those from speakers of the two groups to examine the degree of congruence that interpreters have with the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of the two groups of speakers, for whom they interpret. This study shows that the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of both groups is determined by their adoption of a particular approach (doctor- vs. patient-centered approach) and other micro-level features (perceived time constraints, different notions of “small talk”) that limit elaborate pragmatic enactments. Over-arching cultural-pragmatic models based on “high” (or “low”) context communication, or “vertical” (vs. “horizontal”) hierarchical perceptions of role and status appear to have limited application to the data. Instead, local features specific to the healthcare situation co-determine both English and Chinese speakers' responses to questions about their use of pragmatics. Findings indicate that interpreters attend to each group's enactment of pragmatic features and, as expert language users, are able to recognize features and components of interactions and their functions to a greater degree than the Chinese and English speakers.

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Insight into the structure of compound words among speakers of Chinese and English

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716411000555 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 753-779 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

JIE ZHANG ◽

RICHARD C. ANDERSON ◽

QIUYING WANG ◽

JEROME PACKARD ◽

XINCHUN WU ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sixth Graders ◽

Compound Word ◽

English Speakers ◽

Compound Words ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Word Structure ◽

English Speaking ◽

Noun Compounds ◽

Chinese And English ◽

Insight Into

ABSTRACTKnowledge of compound word structures in Chinese and English was investigated, comparing 435 Chinese and 258 Americans, including second, fourth, and sixth graders, and college undergraduates. As anticipated, the results revealed that Chinese speakers performed better on a word structure analogy task than their English-speaking counterparts. Also, as anticipated, speakers of both languages performed better on noun + noun and verb + particle compounds, which are more productive in their respective languages than noun + verb and verb + noun compounds, which are less productive. Both Chinese and English speakers performed significantly better on novel compounds than on familiar compounds, most likely because familiar compounds are lexicalized and do not invite decomposition into constituents.

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Evidence Against Linguistic Relativity in Chinese and English: A Case Study of Spatial and Temporal Metaphors

Journal of Cognition and Culture ◽

10.1163/156853708x358218 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 8 (3-4) ◽

pp. 335-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Chi-Shing Tse ◽

Jeanette Altarriba

Keyword(s):

Linguistic Relativity ◽

English Speakers ◽

Current Experiment ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Spatial Metaphors ◽

Reverse Pattern ◽

Chinese And English

AbstractTo talk about time, English speakers often use horizontal spatial metaphors whereas Chinese speakers use both vertical and horizontal spatial metaphors. Boroditsky (2001) showed that while Chinese-English bilinguals were faster to verify a temporal target like June comes earlier than August after they had seen a vertical spatial prime rather than a horizontal spatial prime, English monolinguals showed the reverse pattern, thus supporting the linguistic relativity hypothesis. This finding was not conceptually replicated in January and Kako's (2007) six experiments for English monolinguals. In the current experiment, we failed to conceptually replicate her English monolinguals' findings: both Chinese-English bilinguals and English monolinguals were faster to verify the sentences after seeing a vertical spatial prime than a horizontal spatial prime. While we replicated Boroditsky's findings, in part, for our Chinese-English bilinguals, the similarity in the pattern of findings for both Chinese-English bilinguals and English monolinguals argues against the linguistic relativity hypothesis.

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Do Chinese- and English-speaking preschoolers think differently about language?

First Language ◽

10.1177/0142723716673956 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 617-636 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yao Guan ◽

M. Jeffrey Farrar

Keyword(s):

Inhibitory Control ◽

Critical Role ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

English Speakers ◽

Metalinguistic Awareness ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Language Groups ◽

Rhyme Awareness ◽

English Speaking ◽

Chinese And English

Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to identify, reflect upon, and manipulate linguistic units. It plays a critical role in reading development. The present study investigated Chinese- and English-speaking preschoolers’ metalinguistic awareness development and the role of cognitive and linguistic abilities in its development. Forty-two Chinese-speaking and 36 English-speaking monolingual children completed a series of metalinguistic awareness, false belief, inhibitory control, and receptive vocabulary tasks. The results revealed distinct pathways for the two language groups. English speakers had a more advanced level of rhyme awareness. Chinese speakers developed homonym understanding faster during the preschool years. Inhibitory control was more important for Chinese speakers to develop synonym and homonym understanding, whereas receptive vocabulary was crucial for English speakers to develop rhyme awareness. These differences may be attributable to the characteristics of the Chinese and English languages, as well as the patterns of cognitive development in the two populations.

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Linguistically directed attention to the temporal aspect of action events in monolingual English speakers and Chinese–English bilingual speakers with varying English proficiency

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728911000320 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 413-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

JENN-YEU CHEN ◽

JUI-JU SU ◽

CHAO-YANG LEE ◽

PADRAIG G. O'SEAGHDHA

Keyword(s):

English Proficiency ◽

Linguistic Relativity ◽

Matching Task ◽

English Speakers ◽

Directed Attention ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

English Bilingual ◽

Temporal Aspect ◽

Chinese And English

Chinese and English speakers seem to hold different conceptions of time which may be related to the different codings of time in the two languages. Employing a sentence–picture matching task, we have investigated this linguistic relativity in Chinese–English bilinguals varying in English proficiency and found that those with high proficiency performed differently from those with low proficiency. Additional monolingual English data, reported here, showed further that high-proficiency bilinguals performed similarly to the English monolinguals, suggesting that Chinese speakers’ sensitivity to the time of an action event might be modifiable according to the extent of their experience with a tensed language.

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Strategies of Impression Management and Deception among Chinese and English speakers

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e669802012-374 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Chenling Hsieh ◽

Cheryl Hiscock-Anisman ◽

Kevin Colwell ◽

Samantha Florence ◽

Andrea Sorcinelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Impression Management ◽

English Speakers ◽

Chinese And English

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An Innovative Mental Health Model for Treating Culturally Diverse Older Adults

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.306 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 93-93

Author(s):

Tobi Abramson ◽

Jacquelin Berman ◽

Madison Gates

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Older Adults ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Services ◽

Social Isolation ◽

Older Adult ◽

Culturally Diverse ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Chinese Speakers

Abstract The mental health needs of older adults are largely unmet, a finding even more prevalent within culturally diverse older adult populations. Added to this is the high rate of social isolation. Research has indicated increased connection to mental health services when services are embedded within physical health care settings. For those attending community centers, 85% indicate that they are socially isolated, 68% indicate they are lonely, and 53% have a mental health need (compared to 20% nationally). The need for innovative programming is evident. When examining the needs of diverse older adults, it is increasingly important that new and innovative approaches address social isolation, loneliness, and mental health problems experienced by this cohort. Utilizing this knowledge an innovative model of embedding and integrating mental health services, provided by bilingual and bicultural clinicians, into congregate sites (older adult centers) was implemented. Those that participated were mainly female (72.1%), 68.5% English-speaking, 14.5% Spanish-speaking, 13.6% Chinese-speaking and 3.4% other. Spanish-speakers had more depression than English-speakers and both had more depression than Chinese-speakers. English and Spanish-speakers reported more social isolation and Chinese-speakers compared were more likely to participate in engagement. Chinese-speakers were less likely to be in clinical services with a positive screen compared to English-speakers. Overall, 75% engaged in treatment; 37.3% and 41% showed a 3-month improvement of depression and anxiety, respectively. This presentation focuses on the innovative components of this model, how to engage diverse older adults to utilize treatment, steps needed for replication, and policy implications around integrated mental health treatment.

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The use of discourse markers but and so by native English speakers and Chinese speakers of English

Pragmatics ◽

10.1075/prag.27.4.01liu ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 479-506 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Binmei Liu

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Communicative Competence ◽

Oral Proficiency ◽

Discourse Markers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Oral Discourse ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.

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THE PRODUCTION OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT AMONG SWEDISH AND CHINESE SECOND LANGUAGE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263118000025 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 907-921 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carrie N. Jackson ◽

Elizabeth Mormer ◽

Laurel Brehm

Keyword(s):

Sentence Completion ◽

English Speakers ◽

L2 Proficiency ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Second Language Speakers ◽

L2 Production ◽

The Subject ◽

Verb Number ◽

L1 English

AbstractThis study uses a sentence completion task with Swedish and Chinese L2 English speakers to investigate how L1 morphosyntax and L2 proficiency influence L2 English subject-verb agreement production. Chinese has limited nominal and verbal number morphology, while Swedish has robust noun phrase (NP) morphology but does not number-mark verbs. Results showed that like L1 English speakers, both L2 groups used grammatical and conceptual number to produce subject-verb agreement. However, only L1 Chinese speakers—and less-proficient speakers in both L2 groups—were similarly influenced by grammatical and conceptual number when producing the subject NP. These findings demonstrate how L2 proficiency, perhaps combined with cross-linguistic differences, influence L2 production and underscore that encoding of noun and verb number are not independent.

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