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“Sorry Can You Speak It in English with Me?” Managing Routines in Lingua Franca Doctor–Patient Consultations in a Diabetes Clinic

  • Gillian S. Martin EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 28, 2014

Abstract

Research on the routines of doctor–patient consultations has been conducted in language and culture concordant dyads and in dyads where either doctor or patient uses a foreign language; yet there is an absence of scholarly engagement with consultations where both participants are using a foreign language. In seeking to address this gap, this article reports on four doctor–patient consultations involving the use of English as a lingua franca. The data form part of a larger empirical study of communication in an Irish diabetes clinic. Microanalysis, informed by Interactional Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics and Conversation Analysis, reveals a range of interactive challenges rooted in language and cultural assumptions which impact on the management of the consultation routines. The findings emphasize the strength of the doctors’ professional socialization and the challenges this poses for non-native-speaker patients.

Appendix

Transcription notation

special

Italics indicate stress.

SPECIAL

Upper case indicates loud voice.

SPECIAL

Upper case and italics indicate loud voice and stress.

-

Single dash indicates a halting, abrupt cutoff. Several dashes suggest that the talk has a stammering quality.

[

Simultaneous speech or simultaneous start-up.

]

End of simultaneous speech.

° °

Soft voice.

°° °°

Very soft voice.

> <

Accelerated speech.

+((Laughing voice))+

Various characterizations of talk or non-verbal behavior (comment under speech line). Plus signs indicate beginning and end of characterization.

((Patient laughs))

Characterization of talk or non-verbal behavior.

= =

Equal signs indicate no interval between adjacent utterances, where the second utterance latches immediately on to the preceding one.

(.)

Indicates a micro pause.

(())

Double parentheses indicate transcriptionist doubt.

(***)

Talk is incomprehensible.

.hhh

Inhalation.

hhh

Exhalation.

(2.0)

Pause measured in seconds.

^

Higher pitch.

,

Continuing intonation.

?

Rising intonation.

.

Falling intonation.

:

Extended syllable.

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Published Online: 2014-8-28
Published in Print: 2015-1-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

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