A metadialogic approach to intercultural dialogue

Abstract

Our objective is to discover if metadialogic discussion by participants and researchers increases their understanding of the dialogue. We videotaped a native Spanish speaker and a fifth-semester Spanish learner from the U.S. as they discussed a conversational prompt. Next, a facilitator guided the participants in a videotaped retrospection to uncover what their thoughts and feelings had been during the original interaction. A third party then analyzed the original videotaped dialogue and compared it to the participants’ metadialogic commentary to determine accuracy and adequacy of the analysis. Results show that dialogic retrospection is an effective tool and should be incorporated into dialogue research methodology. Instead of analyzing solely a transcription of an audiotape or film, metadialogic retrospection can access hidden motivations underlying language use, leading to greater accuracy. We argue that such retrospection is necessary for understanding cognitive and psychological dimensions of co-constructing meaning in intercultural dialogue.