2013 Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 49-64
This article examines features of linguistic behaviors of facilitators in community planning workshops, how they affect discussions, and whether or not they are effective. In order to specify facilitators' linguistic behaviors, their behaviors were compared with those of chairpersons in business meetings as both workshops and business meetings belong to the meeting genre. The data analyzed in this study is data obtained from video and audio recordings of workshops (approx. 80 hours) and business meetings (approx. 35 hours), from fieldwork, and from follow-up interviews with meeting participants. The analysis indicates that facilitators utilize linguistic strategies related to relational aspects of interaction (politeness), and employ strategies that present meta-information. These features encourage discussion that allows participants to participate equally, understand the flow of the discussion, and enables rapport to develop among members. It can be concluded that facilitators play an important role in community planning discussion, helping parties involved to cooperate effectively.
