Achieving coherence in multilingual interaction

Communication between pupils and teachers who do not share a common linguistic code is analyzed to demonstrate that a multidimensional approach is necessary for achieving descriptive adequacy. The study is naturalistic, but provides a setting within which the role of all elements in the communicative interaction can be controlled to a significant degree. A model of interpretive processing is proposed that integrates the frameworks developed in separate research traditions. The model involves three hierarchically interrelated levels: background knowledge (top), situational knowledge and skills (middle), and linguistic knowledge (bottom). Subjects employed a predominantly top-down strategy in efforts to achieve comprehension; whenever expectations at higher levels were shared, verbal forms were often correctly decoded, even within very limited parameters of language proficiency. Thus, within certain well-defined recurrent situations, a shared linguistic code is neither necessary nor sufficient for successful communication. Illustrations at each level are drawn from transcripts of over 200 hours of classroom videotapes, with analysis and interpretation additionally based on interview and playback data.