Papers by Josef Williamson
The Language Teacher, 2019
In TLT Volume 42(3), Davey Young presents contrasting models of turn-taking in Japanese and Engli... more In TLT Volume 42(3), Davey Young presents contrasting models of turn-taking in Japanese and English and argues that this cross-cultural difference is primarily due to linguistic differences across English and Japanese. While rightly noting that proficiency in turn-taking is crucial for overall interactional competence and should be a focus of pedagogical intervention, Young’s rationale for the difference in his models neglects the important factor of pragmatics, particularly the notion of politeness. In this response to Young’s original article, Japanese-English differences in turn-taking behaviours are considered from a pragmatic viewpoint and analysed as part of a larger discursive leadership (Fairhurst, 2007) framework. The implications for teaching turn-taking are also discussed. TLT42巻3号においてDavey Youngは日本語と英語の話者交替の対照モデルを提示し、この異文化間の相違は、主に英語と日本語の言語的相違によるものであると述べている。Youngが指摘している通り、確かに話者交替の能力は相互行為能力全体の中で極めて重要であり、教育的介入の中心的課題の１つとなるべきである。しかしながら、Youngのモデルにおける日本語と英語の話者交替の相違に関する理論は、語用論にお...
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
Marginalization in decision-making discourse results in disempowerment of the marginalized and de... more Marginalization in decision-making discourse results in disempowerment of the marginalized and detracts from the efficacy of participatory decision making. In ESL contexts, it is usually associated with English proficiency. But this view ignores the influence of preferences for different participation styles, an understanding of which is essential for the development of effective pedagogical remedies to the problem of marginalization. The present study addresses this gap by investigating discourse participation and marginalization from a participation styles perspective. Findings reveal that marginalization resulted from a failure to adopt turn-taking strategies associated with dominant participation styles. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 2022
Marginalization in decision-making discourse results in disempowerment of the marginalized and de... more Marginalization in decision-making discourse results in disempowerment of the marginalized and detracts from the efficacy of participatory decision-making. In ESL contexts it is usually associated with English proficiency. But this view ignores the influence of preferences for different participation styles, an understanding of which is essential for the development of effective pedagogical remedies to the problem of marginalization. The present study addresses this gap by investigating discourse participation and marginalization from a participation styles perspective. Findings reveal that marginalization resulted from a failure to adopt turn-taking strategies associated with dominant participation styles. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Journal of Intercultural Communication, 2021
Within business email correspondence, nominal address forms in the opening salutations and closin... more Within business email correspondence, nominal address forms in the opening salutations and closing signature sections form a vital locus for relational work as they represent key markers of Politeness (Waldvogel, 2007). In intercultural business email where English is used as a lingua franca (BELF), correspondents may have various different L1 norms of nominal address, meaning that deciding on what to call each other at the outset of a relationship can pose a sociopragmatic dilemma. Given a mutually positive disposition, Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Johnson, 1987) suggests that any differences will be accommodated in a kind of Politeness negotiation. However, there have been few studies of this negotiation process, and fewer still involving writers with very different L1 norms of address such as L1 Japanese and L1 English correspondents. In the present study, nominal address data is reported from a twenty-email BELF correspondence between an American official and a Japanese businessman at the outset of their professional relationship. The data reveals multiple instances when each writer selected novel address forms in order to converge with or diverge from the previous choices of their counterpart. Causal factors and implications for interpersonal communication between L1 English and L1 Japanese business correspondents are discussed.
Daito Bunka University Center for management Research Volume 38, Diversity Management: Japanese Management Perspectives , 2020
Japanese business has seen a steady increase in the cultural diversity of workforces in many sect... more Japanese business has seen a steady increase in the cultural diversity of workforces in many sectors since the 1980s driven by a looser approach to immigration, the entrance to Japanese markets of foreign companies and more collaborative overseas relationships pursued by Japanese corporations. As a result, the comparatively low proficiency rate of English in Japan is being exposed as a strategic weakness in global business competence. This chapter reviews recent literature on business English communication from a Japanese perspective and posits that rather than linguistic, the main weaknesses are pragmatic reflecting fundamental differences in the ways native (and westernized) speakers of English and Japanese speakers perform typical business communication genres such as meetings and small talk. The author argues that cultural adaptation should be a negotiation and that global English is most effective when it is seen as a language that can incorporate whichever features of communication are most effective in any given situation regardless of cultural origin. The implications for English pedagogy in Japan are discussed.
Reference this paper:
Williamson, J. (2020). Culturally diverse workplaces and Japanese users of English as a language of business. In D. McDonald & R. Hasegawa (Eds.), Daito Bunka University Center for management Research Volume 38, Diversity Management: Japanese Management Perspectives (pp. 151-183). Tokyo: Daito Bunka University Center for Management Research.
The Language Teacher, 2019
In TLT Volume 42 (3), Davey Young presents contrasting models of turn-taking in Japanese and Engl... more In TLT Volume 42 (3), Davey Young presents contrasting models of turn-taking in Japanese and English and argues that this cross-cultural difference is primarily due to linguistic differences across English and Japanese. While rightly noting that proficiency in turn-taking is crucial for overall interactional competence and should be a focus of pedagogical intervention, Young’s rationale for the difference in his models neglects the important factor of pragmatics, particularly the notion of politeness. In this response to Young’s original article, Japanese-English differences in turn-taking behaviours are considered from a pragmatic viewpoint and analysed as part of a larger discursive leadership (Fairhurst, 2007) framework. The implications for teaching turn-taking are also discussed.
Proceedings of JALT 2015: Focus on the Learner, 2016
An increasing corporate need for English communicative proficiency, driven by globalization and d... more An increasing corporate need for English communicative proficiency, driven by globalization and domestic population decline, makes it imperative that low English sociopragmatic competency among corporate learners be more effectively addressed by teachers. Spencer-Oatey’s sociopragmatic principles (Spencer-Oatey & Jiang, 2003) offer one solution. A context-dependent framework based on SIPs offers analytical and pedagogical utility for corporate English training by helping to identify salient areas of sociopragmatic discord between learner and comparison groups. In this research report, an SIP-based framework for Business English small talk in Western English-speaking groups is used to explore sociopragmatic competence in a Japanese corporate English training context.
Reference Data:
(2016). Small Talk: Sociopragmatic Discord in the Business English Classroom. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the Learner. Tokyo: JALT.
Daito Bunka Daigaku Kiyou, 2018
Business meetings are superficially alike all over the world. Yet under the surface they show fun... more Business meetings are superficially alike all over the world. Yet under the surface they show fundamental discursive differences that align with the specific cultures in which they occur (Aritz and Walker, 2014). A lack of awareness of these differences within the context of an intercultural meeting can potentially impact group rapport and meeting effectiveness. This paper compares the discursive behaviour of groups of Japanese English speakers and groups of native English speakers participating in decision-making meetings and concludes that there are notable and discordant differences across the two groups in terms how discourse is framed, how speaking turns are achieved and how conflict is resolved.
The Language Teacher, 2015
Learners often have difficulties adapting to the pragmatics of English turn-taking in which overl... more Learners often have difficulties adapting to the pragmatics of English turn-taking in which overlaps are a frequent feature. The communication game presented here creates a low face-risk context in which they can practice using short question forms to interrupt current speakers. Cite as: Williamson, J. (2015). Stop the story: A game for encouraging interruptions and practice of short question forms. The Language Teacher, 39(2): 38.
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Papers by Josef Williamson
Reference this paper:
Williamson, J. (2020). Culturally diverse workplaces and Japanese users of English as a language of business. In D. McDonald & R. Hasegawa (Eds.), Daito Bunka University Center for management Research Volume 38, Diversity Management: Japanese Management Perspectives (pp. 151-183). Tokyo: Daito Bunka University Center for Management Research.
Reference Data:
(2016). Small Talk: Sociopragmatic Discord in the Business English Classroom. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the Learner. Tokyo: JALT.
Reference this paper:
Williamson, J. (2020). Culturally diverse workplaces and Japanese users of English as a language of business. In D. McDonald & R. Hasegawa (Eds.), Daito Bunka University Center for management Research Volume 38, Diversity Management: Japanese Management Perspectives (pp. 151-183). Tokyo: Daito Bunka University Center for Management Research.
Reference Data:
(2016). Small Talk: Sociopragmatic Discord in the Business English Classroom. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the Learner. Tokyo: JALT.