Misunderstanding in Social Life

Juliane House is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Hamburg University.

Misunderstanding is a pervasive phenomenon in social life, sometimes with serious consequences for people's life chances. Misunderstandings are especially hazardous in high-stakes events such as job interviews or in the legal system. In unequal power encounters, unsuccessful communication is regularly attributed to the less powerful participant, especially when those participants are members of an ethnic minority group. But even when communicative events are not prestructured by participants' differential positions in social hierarchies, misunderstandings occur at different levels of interactional and social engagement.

1. INTRODUCTIONJuliane House, Gabriele Kasper, & Steven Ross 2. MISUNDERSTANDING IN INTERCULTURAL UNIVERSITY ENCOUNTERS Juliane House, Hamburg University, Germany 3. PARASITIC FORMS OF MISUNDERSTANDING Volker Hinnenkamp, Augsburg University, Germany 4. REPETITION AS A SOURCE OF MISCOMMUNICATION IN ORAL PROFICIENCY INTERVIEWS Steven Ross, Kwansei Gakuin University, Sande-Kobe, Japan & Gabriele Kasper, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA 5. MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN POLITICAL INTERVIEWS Elda Weizman, Bar-Ilan University, Israel & Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 6. "I COULDN'T FOLLOW HER STORY...": GENDER AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN NEW ZEALAND NARRATIVES Janet Holmes, Victoria University, New Zealand 7. IDENTITY, ROLE, AND VOICE IN CROSS-CULTURAL (MIS)COMMUNICATION Claire Kramsch, University of California at Berkeley, USA 8. MISUNDERSTANDING TEACHING AND LEARNING Joan Turner, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK & Masako Hiraga, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan 9. THE POLITICS OF MISUNDERSTANDING IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM: ABORIGINAL ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN QUEENSLAND Diana Eades, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA 10. DISTRUST: A DETERMINING FACTOR IN THE OUTCOMES OF GATEKEEPING ENCOUNTERS Julie Kerekes, Stanford University, USA