Communicative strategies in BELF negotiations : A qualitative study on misunderstandings and communicative strategies in BELF telephone negotiations

Abstract: The present paper focuses on exploring the usage of communicative strategies (CSs) by business professionals who use business English as a lingua franca (BELF) in telephone negotiations. The purpose of the study is also to analyze the occurrence of misunderstanding and non-understandings. The data consists of nine naturally-occurring spoken ‘buy-sell’ negotiations between business professionals from seven different countries around Europe and Asia.  The negotiations summed up to 1 hour and 30 minutes of recorded material. The transcripts of these negotiations were analyzed in detail by using the qualitative method ‘conversation analysis’ (CA). The results show that business professionals use CSs as pre-empting measures to prevent misunderstanding. In addition, CSs in the present data appear to be used to create cooperativeness and subsequently reach successful communication. The present study also found two scenarios where communicative breakdown occurred but were subsequently repaired through ‘clarity requests’, ‘confirmation checks’ and repetition. Lastly, the present paper recognizes that previous knowledge of the other party is an effective aspect in keeping upbeat negotiations and reaching mutual understanding.