Second, though accommodation in NN/NN communication has received some attention, it is still in its infancy. Relevant literature has shown that researches concerning NN/NN interactions are mostly ―hidden‖ in researches of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). On the one hand, some scholars define ELF to be English used among NNSs in their studies (Firth, 1990; Meierkord, 2000; Sweeney and Zhu , 2010); on the other, much of the data used in ELF researches is from NN/NN interactions. In those researches, some scholars have related their findings to communication accommodation but was restricted to convergence—few of them systematically elaborated on the reasons, processes and effects of communication accommodation between NNSs.
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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Due to the scarcity of independent research on NN/NN English interactions in business contexts on the one hand, and the frequent inclusion of NNS studies in ELF researches on the other, this paper could only refer to ELF studies for the most relevant literature review. However, instead of ELF interactions, the term ―NN/NN interactions‖ is used hereafter, because only the discussions in ELF studies that are relevant to NN/NN interactions will be reviewed. This part is divided into two major sections: section 2.2 focuses on the previous studies of NN/NN interactions with different approaches; section 2.3 concentrates on the relevant studies associated with communication accommodation in NN/NN interactions specifically. At the end of each section, a critical evaluation is offered for explicating the necessity of the present study.
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2.2 Approaches to non-native/non-native communication
2.2.1 Introduction
NN/NN communication has been studied mainly with two approaches: ―deficit‖ and interactional approach. The terms were put forward by Firth (1990), based on whether NN/NN interactions are studied in a static or dynamic/interactive way. The former studies the static linguistic features of NN/NN interactions while the latter studies the dynamic interactive processes of NN/NN communication.
2.2.2 “Deficit” approach
A ―deficit‖ approach refers to analysis of NN/NN interactions as interactions between English learners whose English is perceived to be ―imperfect‖ or ―incompetent‖. Such an approach has basically focused on linguistic description of NN/NN communication at lexico-grammatical and pragmatic levels.
Lexico-grammar is an important area that deserves exploration in NN/NN interactions yet where least description has ta
