Rapport management under examination in the context of medical consultations in Spain and Britain

María De La O Hernández López

doi:10.14198/raei.2008.21.04

Abstract

This paper is framed within the areas of interactional pragmatics and social psychology of language, with a twofold purpose: on the one hand, applying Rapport Management (Spencer-Oatey, 2000, 2008) to the context of medical consultations in order to disentangle crucial similarities and differences between British and Spanish interactions; with the exception of Sydow Campbell’s (2005) study, Rapport Management has not been directly approached in this context. In this sense, it constitutes both a challenge in communication studies and a step forward in a well-known theory that still remains under-explored. On the other hand, Cordella’s (2004) voices in medical consultations will prove to be related to the way interlocutors manage rapport in each culture, and therefore, different voices may be relevant in different cultures. This will lead to variation in terms of the three bases of rapport (face, rights and obligations, and interactional goals). Finally, some remarks and limitations of Rapport Management will be discussed so as to give way to a more comprehensive and effective model of communication which may explain both cultural differences and situational variation.

Highlights

It is widely accepted in the literature of pragmatic studies that institutional interactions are based on transactional aspects, and on interactional strategies and rapport building activities which may provide the interlocutorsRevista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses with the tools to achieve their goals in a smooth way: the transactional-interactional (Brown and Yule, 1983; Coupland et al, 1992; Coupland, 2000; Spencer-Oatey, 2008) duality in interaction is necessary even in contexts where there is a clear instrumental, transactional goal
There are considerable differences mainly reflecting that the transactional goals to be achieved in medical consultations are interactionally achieved by means of apparently irrelevant choices in interaction such as the use of jokes, the expression of emotions or the use of small talk, as will be seen later
This paper has examined how institutional settings such as medical consultations may show variation across cultures at different levels related to the way interlocutors manage rapport

Summary

Introduction

It is widely accepted in the literature of pragmatic studies that institutional interactions are based on transactional aspects, and on interactional strategies and rapport building activities (cf. Placencia, 2004) which may provide the interlocutorsRevista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses with the tools to achieve their goals in a smooth way: the transactional-interactional (Brown and Yule, 1983; Coupland et al, 1992; Coupland, 2000; Spencer-Oatey, 2008) duality in interaction is necessary even in contexts where there is a clear instrumental, transactional goal. In relation to linguistic choices, it may be the case that certain conventions have been established as valid in specific cultures; still, the way we communicate and interpret others depends on cultural values transferred to communication in an automatic way. Because of the common interests of both doctor and patient, the medical consultation would typically correspond to a rapport maintenance or enhancement orientation. This will develop into a culturally-bound strategic use of communication. In María Elena Placencia and Carmen García, eds., Politeness in the SpanishSpeaking World.

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