Asymmetric Communication in Bilingual Exchanges

Abstract

This paper analyzes the characteristics of exolinguistic communication, a type of asymmetric communication. The data base contains five dialogues between French speakers and Latin American Spanish speakers. The subjects did not have any knowledge of French before their arrival in France. The recording situations were as authentic and varied as possible.In exolinguistic communication two speakers actively work together with varying degrees of cooperation and complementary strategies to achieve mutual understanding. In this study we examine the role of repetition, simplification, and facilitation (breaking up information, paraphrases, types of questions which warn of difficulties, etc.) and analyze the characteristics of asymmetric exchanges made up of three- or four-turn sequences which allow speakers to check understanding and avoid misunderstanding.This leads to several hypotheses on natural second language acquisition and, more specifically, on the “guidance” offered by the native speaker and on the role of metalinguistic activities.