Cohesion as Interaction in ELF Spoken Discourse: An Analysis of Question-Answer Sessions in University Contexts

Most existing research into cohesion has concentrated only on texts (usually written) and then only in standard English – e.g. Quirk et al. (1972), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Halliday (2004). Following on the work in anaphora of such scholars as Reinhart (1983) and Cornish (1999), Christiansen (2011) describes cohesion as an interactive process focusing on the link between text cohesion and discourse coherence, viewed from the standpoints of both addressor and addressee. A consideration of cohesion within the context of discourse (seen as the process of which text is the product see Widdowson 1984: 100) is especially relevant within a lingua franca context because the issue of different varieties of ELF and inter-cultural concerns (see Guido 2008) add extra dimensions to the complex multi-code interaction of which cohesion must be seen not only as the key element in the co-construction of a dialogic text in interaction, but crucially as constituting the interface between the various ELF varieties in the ongoing development of discourse. As such, it is fundamental for the interpretation of the same discourse by participants. In this case study, six extracts of transcripts (approximately 1000 words each), taken from the VOICE corpus (2011) of conference question and answer sessions (spoken interaction) set in multicultural university contexts are analysed in depth by means of a qualitative method. The types of cohesive device that six selected speakers of diverse ELF backgrounds use are examined to test the hypothesis that, in such a context, speakers differently achieve cohesion both within their own speaker turns and relating to other speakers’ turns, despite the fact that conference interaction is generally assumed to constitute part of an internationally-shared academic register.