Interactive conflict resolution in English

In this study involving international graduate assistants in an American university, some members of the outer circle of English users (students from India) were paired with members of the expanding circle (students from China and Korea) to perform a special type of interactive communication task. The task required a ‘sender’ to describe a delivery route to a ‘receiver’ on similar, but slightly different, maps. Under the first condition, the more fluent outer circle members were in the dominant sender role, giving directions to a member of the expanding circle and, under the second condition, the roles were reversed. Evidence from the taperecorded interactions is presented to illustrate not only how referential conflicts arose in these interactions, but also how they were resolved. The strategies adopted for resolving the conflicts in the first‐condition interactions are shown to be much less effective in terms of successful communication than the type of negotiated, cooperative strategies found under the second condition. It is argued that, if we wish to create task‐related pairings which will give most benefit in the development of communication skills, then the more fluent or more proficient member is, perhaps paradoxically, best placed in the subordinate role.