초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Objectives: English communication skills are becoming more important in the business context of Japan. To realize smooth communication, the use of clarification requests is considered facilitative. Many companies in Japan have introduced corporate in-house English training as a part of their English-speaking Human Resources development, and many focus on training in the use of clarification requests. However, not much has been understood about how the pragmatics are employed within the English-speaking discourse community by Japanese businesspeople. This study looks at how clarification requests are used by Japanese businesspeople and addresses how they can contribute to realizing effective communication in English-speaking business discourse in Japan. Methods: The researcher analyses data retrieved from stimulated role-play. The participants are requested to engage in collective decision-making in their corporate in-house English training. There were 24 participants involved in this study, and they were placed into four teams for cross-sectional comparison. The interaction of the participants was video recorded and later transcribed to allow for text-based discourse analysis. Results: Our data show that the use of clarification request strategies was observed in all teams. Participants used clarification requests for various kinds of discourse pragmatic functions. Conclusions: It was concluded that teaching clarification request strategies is beneficial for many Japanese businesspeople who wish to develop their English communication competence. However, the potential face-threatening aspect of the use of clarification requests by Japanese speakers of English has been overlooked. This aspect should be taken into consideration when designing/implementing corporate in-house English training in Japanese companies in the future.
