What contributes to successful communication? - Negotiating misunderstanding - Signalling misunderstanding

4 important questions on What contributes to successful communication? - Negotiating misunderstanding - Signalling misunderstanding

What happens when misunderstandings occur?

Speakers apply a continuum of procedures ranging from explicitly signalling their non-understandings or difficulties to coping strategy.

Which coping procedures can be used to signal mis- or non-understandings?

  • over-riding practices
  • silence
  • minimal feedback

What are over-riding practices?

Participants ignore the utterance beyond their comprehension and carry on with their topics.
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What is minimal feedback?

Participants acknowledge the other participants' utterances merely with feedback tokens such as 'yes', 'hm', 'yeah' or equivalents. It helps to keep the flow of interaction and to give speakers more time and contextual information to gradually formulate their hypotheses to some extent, but its prolonged use often leads to confusion, since the burden rests on the other participant to interpret and piece together the limited information available.

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