Presentation Title: Communication Breakdowns and Repair

Toyohashi chapter

This presentation will focus on a study where the researchers investigated the cause of communication breakdowns during conversations between Japanese and native speakers of English, and the means of repair initiated. It was hypothesized that the majority of breakdowns would occur due to incomprehensible pronunciation. The findings indicate that there were a number of other factors that caused the breakdowns. In addition, students used a wide variety of repair tactics, rarely involving adjustments in pronunciation.