Building Rapport in an Oral Mediation Task: An Analysis of Upper-Intermediate Learners’ Use of Small Talk and Other Positive Politeness Language Formulae

Abstract

This article analyses the individual responses of 20 upper-intermediate learners to an oral mediation task. Particularly, it focuses on the initial and closing linguistic resources and strategies that are displayed in each participant’s production in order to address the needs of the recipient included in the task description. With this aim, some categories of analysis are created. These categories have been designed following the descriptors of the Companion Volume of the CEFRL as well as previous literature and studies on small talk’s functionalities. Therefore, to analyse the initiation of the conversation the categories of using greetings, empathy and compassion linguistic markers and readiness to help formulae are explored. On the other hand, to inquire into the ending of the sustained-monologue, comprehension checking formulae, empathetic markers used as well as concluding and summarizing formulae have been studied. The results show that there is a lack of attention to the task’s description and, thus, to the recipient’s needs. Furthermore, additional training is needed in concluding formulae, including unimportant talk.