Intonation as a pragmatic resource in ELF interaction

Abstract

The investigation of pragmatic strategies in ELF interaction is a relatively new area of research. This paper examines intonation as a pragmatic resource in ELF interaction. There is considerable research pointing to the critical role played by intonational structure in NS-based discourse to establish a state of informational and social convergence (Brazil, The communicative value of intonation in English, Cambridge University Press, 1997; Chun, Discourse intonation in L2, John Benjamins, 2002; Hewings, International Review of Applied Linguistics 33: 251–65, 1995; Pickering, TESOL Quarterly 35: 233–255, 2001; Wennerstrom, Music in everyday speech, Oxford University Press, 2001). The question of whether similar practices can be identified in ELF interaction remains open. In this paper, I review current understanding of the role of intonational structure in NS-based interaction and then examine data from ELF interactions. Using a model of intonation in discourse (Brazil, The communicative value of intonation in English, Cambridge University Press, 1997) to interpret these data, I argue that both pitch movement (tone choice) and relative pitch level (key choice) contribute to intelligibility and interactional success in ELF interaction. Participants appear to orient to pitch cues both as a signal of a possible trouble source and as a means to indicate that negotiation or repair sequences have been accomplished successfully.