An Investigation into how Relational Work is Managed in an Online Intercultural Exchange

Wylie, Michelle (2024). An Investigation into how Relational Work is Managed in an Online Intercultural Exchange. EdD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00096268

Abstract

More and more communication is happening online, with increased opportunities for intercultural encounters (Kytola, 2016). Paralinguistic features are used pervasively in digital discourse (Herring and Androutsopoulos, 2015), therefore they play a pivotal role in online communication skills. Consequently, there is a need for research that explores how culture manifests in an online setting and the communication strategies that can be used to interact successful with diverse interlocutors online. This thesis sets out to explore these research foci through a semester long, virtual exchange programme conducted between 21 South Korean students and 25 students attending a university in England. The dataset of 20,379 words collected during the virtual exchange was examined for patterns related to relational work, cultural variation in the use of paralinguistic features, and the influence of communicative acts on the inclusion of paralinguistic cues. Much research has focused on the functions of paralinguistic features yet the role played by these features in communication strategies remains to be clarified.

As this thesis examines potential cultural variations online, it adheres to a culturally relativist perspective. Therefore, an inductive approach to the analysis of the data was used. The analysis of the data revealed culturally specific paralinguistic features, with the emergence of a feature that to the best of my knowledge, has not been recorded in previous virtual exchange research. In addition, the data revealed patterns pertaining to differences in inclusion rates of paralinguistic features in a variety of communicative acts.

The findings from this study significantly contribute to understanding how culture can become manifest online, and provides insight into the role that paralinguistic features play in online relational work. These findings provide valuable insight into computer mediated communication, while raising questions related to other potential cultural variations yet to be documented in academia.