Participation and performance in international business meetings

This paper reports on an analysis of meetings data which forms part of a broader study investigating the use of English as a lingua franca in international business meetings. This discourse analytic stage of research builds on an initial survey which explored the use of English for International Business (EIB) in a particular European organisation. The survey uncovered a range of communication issues and frustrations raised by meeting participants as well as an awareness of some of the strategies that could be used to overcome them (Rogerson-Revell, 2007). This analysis of the meeting discourse attempts to relate these perceptions to the actual interactive characteristics of the meetings themselves. Initial findings suggest that there is some support for the issues raised in the survey, particularly with regard to levels of participation, for, although Native English Speakers (NSE) do not dominate talk in terms of talk time, there is a much higher proportion of inactive Non-Native English Speakers (NNSE) in the meetings. However, despite concerns from some participants that communication in English can be problematic, the analysis illustrates the overall positive linguistic performance of speakers in the meetings themselves. It also reveals some of the ways active participants employ a variety of interactive resources and strategies to achieve substantive goals and to establish a sense of normality in situ despite generic and linguistic constraints. The study also suggests that the apparent paradox between the negative perceptions of some participants and the overall positive performance of speakers in the meetings themselves needs further investigation. (c) 2008 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.