Grounding and information communication in intercultural and intracultural dyadic discourse

Abstract

Past research on the theory of grounding indicates that grounding facilitates human communication in intracultural conversations. This study extends previous research by examining whether grounding functions in the same way in both intracultural and intercultural conditions. Participants were 40 Canadians and 40 Chinese who formed 40 dyads in 4 experimental conditions: Canadian/Canadian, Chinese/Chinese, Chinese speaker/Canadian listener, and Canadian speaker/Chinese listener. All conversations were videotaped and microanalyzed. It was found that the more dyads engaged in grounding activities, the better they communicated the information from the speaker to the listener in all experimental conditions combined. It was also found that grounding and listener recall scores were highly correlated when the Canadians served as listeners, but not when the Chinese served as listeners. This finding seems to indicate a cultural difference between Chinese and Canadians regarding the meaning of their grounding activities. Chinese listeners interact for the sake of interacting (e.g., building rapport), whereas Canadian listeners interact for the sake of transmitting content.