A study of conflict management by Japanese learners of English in conversation

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This study investigates how Japanese learners of English handle (or fail to handle) conflictive situations in face-to-face interaction. First, through discourse analytic approaches to audio-taped conversation data that included disagreements, arguments, and negotiations among participants, several distinct differences between the learners and native speakers of English were identified. Then a follow-up analysis on the same learner group was conducted to observe how they might improve their management of conflicts. The results showed that the learners, after a six-week sojourn in an English speaking country, started employing linguistic devices and discourse strategies typical to native speakers. These empirical findings suggest that learners may acquire more native-like conflict resolution skills by interacting with and imitating native speakers of the target language.