2022 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 21-36
The authors examined two two-party conversations (conversations ① and ②) and one three-party conversation (conversation ③) involving two Japanese native speakers and one non-native speaker, who were meeting for the first time, and compared the participation adjustments made to facilitate the comprehension and participation of the native and non-native speakers. The authors analyzed topic-opening participants, utterance functions, topic holders, and methods of topic development in large, middle, and small topic openings. Then, the authors discussed what kind of participation adjustment strategies the participants used as a language host or guest. The results demonstrate that in the two-party conversations ① and ②, although there were differences between the native speakers, both the native speakers and the non-native speaker made participation adjustments, allowing the non-native speaker to comprehend and sufficiently participate. However, in three-party conversation ③, the native speakers’ awareness of the need for adjustments declined while discussing some topics, leading to a decline in the non-native speaker’s ability to comprehend and participate. Based on these results, the authors demonstrated the necessity for both native speakers and non-native speakers to adjust participation, not only in two-party conversations, but also in three-party conversations.
