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As the state of Iowa continues to see an influx in 'new immigrants,' English speaking retail and service agency employees often assist consumers who are nonnative speakers of English on a regular basis. This mismatch between language and culture can sometimes cause misunderstanding and discomfort in cross-cultural relationships. Six Hispanic Spanish Lladult consumers and 13 White English Ll employees from one rural Iowa community participated in this study. Both groups were asked a series of interview questions to share their perceptions about their ability to communicate with people in the other group. The participants were also asked to consider how nonverbal cues and signals might enhance or distract from verbal communication. All but one of the interview responses were audio recorded and analyzed to search for patterned themes as well as divergent but noteworthy thoughts. The results indicate that the Hispanic immigrants, at various proficiency levels feel some success conducting basic personal business such as shopping, dining out, and making simple transactions at the bank. Feelings of success are usually related to friendly service from employees who smile, listen patiently, and help the immigrant consumer feel comfortable. Anglo employees want to assist the immigrant consumers but when a language barrier exists, feelings of frustration are commonplace. Many employees remain in the store after assisting an immigrant hoping they have provided the correct product or service. Nonverbal cues playa significant role in cross-cultural communication. Smiling and eye contact indicate friendliness and comprehension and hand gestures often fill linguistic gaps. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As an adult ESL teacher, I sometimes hear immigrant language learners' stories about communication breakdowns. As a White native speaker of English (NS), I also hear comments from other White NS residents which are not always positive or favorable toward their Hispanic neighbors. Sometimes I have tried to defend my Hispanic students and friends, but often the enormous scope of the issues causes me to be silent. I fear I cannot adequately represent the voice of the Hispanic immigrants or help the NSs fully understand their role in the immigrants' story, but it is a task worth trying. As many others (Davis & Henze, 1998; Bailey, 2000; Gumperz & Roberts, 1991) who have undertaken cross-cultural and intercultural research have discovered, understanding the intricacies of communication is not always possible without close analysis. Part of this analysis means that individuals be allowed to have a voice with the hope that they can be seen as a valuable part of a community. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theorists have been criticized because they have not fully "[conceptualized] the relationship between the language learner and the social world because they have not developed a comprehensive theory of social identity which integrates the language learner and the language learning context." (Norton Pierce, 1995: 9) This has serious implications for language learners because success in the classroom often does not equal success in authentic communication in the second language (L2). Fortunately, recent developments in SLA have created a new emphasis on factors, such as social identity, which are nonverbal, but yet are not unattached to verbal communication to help create a more complete picture of the language learner experience. However, very few SLA studies exist that investigate how physical nonverbal cues, such as hand gestures and facial expressions, affect authentic communication between NSs and non-native speakers of English (NNSs). 2 One aspect of the social environment which influences identity involves the tendency for humans to view interactions with others through an 'us and them' lens. As Duszak (2002) points out, each individual constructs her own identity which is managed "through discourse and by means of various linguistic mechanisms and strategies" (p. 1). Often, in developing that identity, the individual does so through a compare/contrast method which establishes the thought that "I" am different from "them." However, Duszak (2002) also explains that one language does not equal one community or one world-view. Rather, each individual has multiple identities which are constantly shaped by factors such as gender, age, employment, geography, social class, lifestyle choices, ethnicity, kinship, nationality, and ideology. As a result, 'us and them' attitudes can be variable among individuals and dependent upon context (Duszak, 2002). In other words, a Hispanic immigrant can feel like an outsider while conducting a bank transaction, but he may feel a sense of belonging while attending church in the same community and perhaps among some of the same people. Somewhat related to identity are the issues of social power and social distance. Social power refers to the unequal roles between two people who are engaging in communication. The person in the power position typically has the ability or authority to "control the behavior of the other" (Spencer-Oatey, 2000: 32). Social power can be real or perceived and may vary as the interlocutors change. In some cases, such as those reviewed in Davis and Henze (1998) and Gumperz and Roberts (1991), social power is easily identified because the NS is ajob supervisor or counselor, or the NS is an employee who has knowledge about a product or service and the NNS is a consumer who must rely on the employee to supply a want or need. In this study, the NSs are in power positions as employees at retail/service agencies because of language, ethnicity, and, in most cases, product knowledge. Social distance is a term used to refer to the relationship between two interlocutors and can be affected by features such as " ... social similarity/difference ... frequency of contact .. .length of acquaintance ... sense of like-mindedness ... " (Spencer-Oatey, 2000: 34). To further define social distance, suppose that a customer frequents a store so the retail/service employee takes the initiative to build a friendship with the customer. Ifboth interlocutors perceive this as positive, the power relationship may appear to become more balanced, thereby decreasing feelings of social distance. Or in a negative example, if the employee and/or customer are unable to overcome differences in language, ethnicity, or class, the social distance may increase and perhaps cement the uneven power relationship. 3 Often social distance is established by preconceived notions about those involved in the conversation. For instance, when Bailey (2000) investigated tension between African American customers and Korean immigrant shopkeepers, social distance had been established by years of miscommunication between the two groups. Each culture has its own pragmatic norms, which are often interpreted only in terms of what is verbalized or in terms of the speaker's own cultural norms. Because of this, members of these groups felt negatively about the other even before initiating a conversation. This negative social distance had many negative effects, including the murder of an African American customer by a Korean shopkeeper. Although communication tensions between Anglos and Hispanics in Hampton, Iowa are nothing like the severe conflicts between African Americans and Koreans in Los

Communication during public service encounters: Spanish L1 immigrant consumers and English L1 employees