Cross-Cultural Telephone Call Closings in English between a Korean and an American Interactants

Abstract

After pointing out both the paucity of research on cross-cultural telephone call closings between interactants whose dominant languages differ and the lopsided attention to telephone call openings, the present study first illustrates the reciprocal duplication of the identical terminal elements between the conversationalists across the American telephone closing turns and the progressive unilaterality by one interactant, and in response, the repetition of yey ‘yes’ by the other interactant in the Korean telephone closing turns. Then, it turns to an English telephone call closing between a North-American English speaker and a proficient speaker of English whose native language is Korean and whose total length of stay in English-speaking countries is limited to between one year and two years. The data illustrate that the Korean caller’s telephone closing sequence in English resembles that of Korean more than that of North-American English in light of the absence of lexical duplication, minimal reciprocity, and the terminal silence in response to bye in English. The source of the Korean-like behaviors in the English telephone call closing is traced to the influence of the telephone call closing sequence in the speaker’s dominant language (i.e., Korean in this case). The present study identifies it as conversational transfer in order to put more weight on the sequential interdependence and reciprocity of cross-cultural telephone conversation closings without limiting the participants to second language learners. Suggestions for future studies based on the limitations of the present study are also offered along with some pedagogical implications.