Learning How to Speak Like a "Native": Speech and Culture in an Online Communication Training Program. (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hart, Tabitha
• Other Names: Dannels Deanna P. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of business and technical communication. Volume 30:Number 3(2016:Jul.)
• Page Start: 285
• Page End: 321
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: speech code -- ethnography of communication -- cultural communication -- online ethnography -- online training -- oral communication; Business communication -- Periodicals; Communication of technical information -- Periodicals; 658.45
• DOI: 10.1177/1050651916636363
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1050-6519

Abstract

This article examines the oral communication training that took place in Eloqi, a virtual language-learning community. Eloqi (a pseudonym) was a for-profit start-up that built and operated a proprietary Web-based, voice-enabled platform connecting English-language learners in China with trainers in the United States. While it existed, Eloqi's unique platform was used to deliver short, one-on-one lessons designed to improve students' oral English communication skills. Using the ethnography of communication and speech codes theory, a theoretical–methodological approach, the author presents an analysis of the speech code, or code of communicative conduct, employed at Eloqi. This code of English logic, which Eloqi's community members associated with native English speech, comprised six locally defined rules for oral English speech; namely, speech had to be organized, succinct, spontaneously composed rather than rehearsed, original and honest, proactively improved, and positive. This article discusses the significance of this code, particularly as it pertains to cultural communication, and concludes with some implications for researchers and practitioners in business and technical communication.