English Skills for Building Engineering / Step I / J.

Santiago

STEP I: (INTER)CULTURAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

In this step you will learn about:

 How and when to use politeness formulae and social English

 How to be aware of cultural differences
 Mitigation techniques

INTRODUCTION

In spite of the current globalization trend, and the unstoppable impulse of English as
the lingua franca of trade and business, science and research, there are differences
worth knowing, which are often displayed during intercultural communication. Knowing
the communicative strategies and using the language we are expected to use during
social events can be of great help in general; knowing how to socialize during
academic and professional situations can, not only be helpful, but also key to opening
new career paths. https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_don_t_insist_on_english#t-538579

In this step, we will first review some of the language used when making
acquaintances, with special emphasis placed on social language during conference and
meeting breaks; we will then get some listening practice, and finally we will implement
what we have learnt during role-playing.´

INTERCULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN COMMUNICATION

Cultural differences are a fact. Attitudes such as eye-contact, personal distance or

body language, vary significantly from one country to another. For instance, in
Western societies, a person who does not maintain eye-contact may be regarded as
suspicious or unreliable, even unfriendly or insecure, whereas prolonged eye-contact is
often deemed impolite in most countries, especially if the person looking is from a
lower social status. In general, we can affirm that staring is considered a bad habit. By
contrast, in Japan children are raised to look at their superiors’ Adam’s apple or tie
knot as sign of respect, while in the UK, well-educated people are taught to pay strict
attention to the speaker, to listen carefully, and to blink their eyes to let the
interlocutor know they have understood or simply, that they are following the
conversation. Other ways to keep the conversation going are bobbing your eyes,
your head or produce a grunting sound.

Finally, in some Asian cultures, a widening of the eyes should be interpreted as a

danger sign, while in others is often taken as an expression of astonishment.

In short, when dealing with people from other cultural backgrounds, we need to be
aware of differences, be tolerant of them, and understand cultural diversity which is
present in most international exchanges. Most communicative situations have a specific
internal structure that is peculiar to them. We generally participate in some of these
situations unconsciously because we have become used to them over time, but in
some other cases, we need to learn the conventions of a particular event. Knowing and
mastering the language is an important stepping-stone toward success in social,
academic and professional situations. Look at the list of items below to get a taste of
how language should be used during, say, a conference coffee break.

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Brief language checklist of phrases used in social English & small talk

1. Welcoming another person/ our interlocutor

Welcome to…

2. Introducing yourself
My name is…from (country, institution, affiliation…)

3. Introducing someone
This is ….he/she is my……PA…
Can I /I’d like to introduce you to….she’s is our Project Manager…

4. Apologizing for minor problems

Sorry, I’m a little late...early…
Sorry, my plane was delayed…some unforeseen problems happened…

5. Responding to minor problems

No worries, it’s OK, don’t worry about it, don’t mention it, sure…

6. Meeting someone and using small talk

Pleased to meet you,
It’s a pleasure, my pleasure…
How was your trip? Did you have a good flight, trip?
How are things in…Madrid?
How long are you staying in London? Where are you staying?
Is your hotel OK, comfortable?
Hope you’re enjoying your time here…
Is this your first visit to…?

7. Talking about and responding to professional interests

So, you come from the…..university?
So, which university, department, you said you work for?
So, what is your research field?
What is your professional background?
So, you are doing/ conducting your research in…?
My field is…
I am conducting a study/ a project on/ into…
That sounds really interesting, appealing…

8. Asking for clarification or repetition

You said your last name was…?
Sorry, I didn’t catch your affiliation…?
Again, what was your…?
Could you please tell me a bit more about…?
Would you mind telling me about…a bit more…?

In the case of overlapping (two or more speaking at the same time)

Please, continue…
Sorry, go ahead…, sorry, you go first

9. Offering assistance
Can I get you anything/something?
Do you need anything/ something?
Would you care for ….a drink?

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If you need to use the phone, fax, email, please let me know
Can we do anything for you?
Do you need a taxi, a hotel, any information…?

10. Asking for assistance

Actually, in fact, there is one thing I need…
Could you get me…?
Would it be a problem to get me…?
Could you help me arrange a flight to…?
Can you recommend a good restaurant nearby, any places, sites worth visiting?

Warming up

Before meeting business partners and fellow professionals from other countries you
need to consider what topics may be raised and which ones should be avoided.

List any points or issues you think are important when interacting with colleagues from
other countries or backgrounds:

1)

2)

3)

4)

Another important issue in social interaction is communicative politeness. English is

rich with ‘polite’ and ‘tentative’ language used to avoid potentially unsafe topics or
socially threatening situations, to soften potentially negative statements or simply to
break down bad news. Additionally, polite language helps us to ‘save and protect face’
and give the other person a way out of a compromising situation, simply to say ‘no’ or
to suggest an alternative. Polite language often takes the form of modal verbs (may,
might, could), past tense forms (I was wondering…), tentative forms (I’d like to talk
to…do you mind if I spoke to…), passive voice (I was told that…), or expressions that
soften or attenuate the content of the message, such as ‘apparently, it seems that,
seemingly, as far as I know, to the best of my knowledge, etc’. We often refer to these
expressions as ‘mitigation techniques’.

MITIGATION TECHNIQUES

Hedges are, both consciously and unconsciously, used to modulate, modify or

attenuate part of the meaning, very often to make it less direct. In everyday
communication, hedges are used to express different functions, especially in politeness
and acts of requesting, ordering, inviting, declining requests, etc. In this sense, hedges
are also known as “mitigators”, because they are ways of protecting assertions and
being cautious in interaction, e.g. avoiding the consequences of a negative statement .

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Hedges can be verbal and non-verbal:

‘Verbal hedging’ includes modal verbs (may, might, can, could, would), other lexical
verbs such as ‘appear’, or ‘suggest’; tentative cognition verbs ( believe, think, consider),
tentative linking verbs (seem, become).

Non-verbal hedging’ can be sub-divided into nouns ( suggestion, claim), prepositional

groups (to our knowledge, in our opinion), probability adverbs (probably, possibly
seemingly), adverbs of indefinite frequency ( usually, generally), adverbs of indefinite
degree (roughly, approximately), approximative adjectives (about).

Passivization

Passive voice use is very frequent in scientific writing. Consider these examples:

(a) Another tunnel has been built by Ferrovial tunnel division (full passive)
(b) Five new T-beams have been cast at the site (truncated passive: no agent)

Truncated passives are more frequent than full passives in this context, since the
procedure (the action) is considered more relevant that the agent, and very often the
agent need not be mentioned because it is not considered necessary. Truncated
passives could be easily replaced by their active counterparts with subjects we/I. For
instance:

(ci) The actual material savings can be analysed by considering two basic structural
elements: a typical floor slab and a typical floor beam sample.

(cii) We analysed the actual material savings by considering two basic structural
elements: a typical floor slab and a typical floor beam sample.

Since in scientific language, the agentive subject is not usually human, the general use
of the passive voice seems justified. Look at following example:

(d) The finished structure will be subjected to less shrinkage forces and consequential
cracking damage in the building frame.

Converting the sentence into active and using forces as the subject would not appear
natural.

In addition, we can observe that the type of genre seems to have an influence on the
choice of the passive voice. In abstracts, for example, passive voice use seems to
respond to polite academic reasons, perhaps because of the conventions of the
abstract genre. A report usually makes reference to some action. The choice of passive
constructions within this genre is more common than in the former case.

Consequently, passivization is one of the syntactic strategies that can be used to

assign focus. The two major positions in the clause are the beginning and the end. In
the active sentence, the starting point for the message, (often called “the theme”),
matches the “Agent as Subject” construction, while the “Affected participant” is in final
position and receives end-focus.

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Example (1) The T-beams supported the roof.

Subject: theme Affected: end-focus

In the passive construction this arrangement is reversed. The Affected now provides
the point of departure, coinciding with Subject, while the Agent takes the final position
and receives end-focus.

Example (2) The roof was supported by the T-beams.

Affected subject: Theme Agent: end-focus

Therefore, the active-passive alternation allows the speaker to arrange the message so
that new information may be placed in end-position, while the element considered to
be given or known may be placed in initial position or the other way round.

PRACTICE SECTION

1. Identification task. Read the following dialog and identify the phrases
that include some politeness strategies.

- Good morning, how can I help you?

- Oh, good morning. I was wondering if I could have a quick word with your Project
Manager?
- Do you have an appointment?
- Actually, I don’t.
- I see. That’s not going to be easy. Mrs Smith is very hectic at the moment. Well, in
fact, she’s tied up at a meeting.
- Of course, I understand. I just wanted to speak to her for a couple of minutes, that’s
all.
- Could you tell me what it is about?
- Yes. There seems to be a mistake on an invoice you sent to my company. I thought it
might help if I spoke to the person in charge. I would be really grateful.
- May I see the invoice?
- Yes, here it is.
- Why don’t you email Mrs Smith on this matter? As far as I know, there’s a meeting
until 12:30, and you would have to wait.
- Yes, I could email him. But, should there be a chance during the meeting, could you
please tell him I have been here.

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2. Work in group. Role-playing.

You are attending an international encounter on sustainable building and the

new challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of house design
and planning. Must-have house requirements are to be addressed. You can use the
phrases on page 2.

Participants work in group. Each group prepares a list of measures/proposals.

Act out the social strategies in the unit to role play the situation.

Now try the tasks on hedging in this website:

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https://www.academic-englishuk.com/hedging