Magdalena Steciąg & Urszula Majdańska-Wachowicz

ABSTRACT

The presented pilot study investigates the role of communication strategies in intercultural communication and their impact on mutual intelligibility with reference to semi-spontaneous dialogues taken by Polish and Czech students in real-time. The research is conducted within a theoretical framework of receptive multilingualism and specifically lingua receptiva (LaRa), defined as “the ensemble of those linguistic, mental, interactional as well as intercultural competences which are creatively activated when listeners are receiving linguistic actions in their ‘passive’ language or variety” (Rehbein, ten Thije, Verschik, 2011: 249). It is also inspired by the project on the intelligibility between closely related languages (Gooskens, et. al. 2018) which shows low rates of understanding the Polish language by the Czech listeners and the Czech language by the Polish listeners when exposed to reading and listening tasks. Different types of research instruments were used to provide new qualitative and quantitative data: the audiovisual recording of the students performing the task followed by the checklist, including key statements necessary to evaluate if the task was performed successfully, the audiovisual recording of retrospective comments of the participants, and the transcripts. The results of the research demonstrate a strong effect of communication strategies for LaRa to be successful in the spoken discourse. In light of the pilot study, it can be stated that LaRa may enhance speakers’ confidence and the skills of interpretation of the message. It also improves openness and motivation to interact effectively.

Keywords

lingua receptive; Polish-Czech communication; closely related languages; communication strategies; mutual intelligibility

References

1. Gooskens, Ch., van Heuven, V. J., Golubović, J., Schüppert, A., Swarte, F., & Voigt, S. (2018). Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in Europe, International Journal of Multilingualism, 15 (2), 1–25. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2017.1350185

2. Rehbein, J., ten Thije, J.D., & Verschik, A., 2011. Lingua receptiva (LaRa) – remarks on the quintessence of receptive multilingualism. International Journal of Bilingualism, 16(3), 248–264. DOI: 10.1177/1367006911426466

3. Nieporowski P., Steciąg M., Zábranský L., 2020. ‘It is natural for everyone to speak their language’. Lingua receptiva in the Polish-Czech borderland – a sociolinguistic approach. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–17.

DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2020.1806856