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Historical context and intercultural communication: Interactions between Japanese and American factory workers in the American South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2005

YUKAKO SUNAOSHI
YUKAKO SUNAOSHI
Affiliation:
Faculty of International Communication, Gunma Prefectural Women's University, 1395-1 Kaminote Tamamura-machi, Sawa-gun Gunma-ken 370-1193, Japan, ysunaoshi@gpwu.ac.jp
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Abstract

This article underscores the importance of examining interlocutors' history in studies of intercultural communication. Five historical factors and four contextual factors are proposed and illustrated with interview and videotaped data, showing how each factor predetermines the interactants' power dynamics, thus shaping and influencing the process and outcome of interaction. Analyzing videotaped interactions between Japanese technical supporters and American workers on the production floor also demonstrates the interlocutors' creative utilization of available communicative resources and co-construction of meaning as interactions unfold. This co-construction of meaning occurs despite the severely limited knowledge of the other group's language and sociolinguistic norms.I thank all the study participants at Japan Die Company, who spent their precious time for my research. I am indebted to Miyako Inoue, Elizabeth Keating, Keith Walters, and Tony Woodbury for providing me with useful comments, insights, and encouragement, and Ellen Nakamura for proofreading the text. Thanks also to the School of Asian Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for supporting my writing of this article. Earlier versions of this project were presented at Stanford University, Nagoya University, and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and I appreciate the audiences' valuable feedback.

Keywords

Historical contextintercultural communicationworkplace interactioncommunicative resourcesco-construction of meaningJapanese-American professional interaction
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 185 - 217
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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