Accommodation to Outgroup Members’ Use of an Ingroup Language: A Comparison of Service Encounters in Person and Over the Telephone

Switches to English during French Service Encounters: Relationships with L2 French Speakers’ Willingness to Communicate and Motivation

“…However, recent studies have claimed that a Montreal identity has emerged that is characterized by greater heterogeneity than is found in the rest of Québec and by the identification of English as a common assumed in-group language between linguistic groups (Kircher, 2014;Labelle & Salée, 2001;Lamarre, Paquette, Kahn, & Ambrosi, 2002). In light of the diversity of the participants' language backgrounds and the Montreal population generally, the service providers may have switched to English due to visual or auditory cultural markers (Callahan, 2009;Heller, 1982Heller, , 1992 that led them to perceive the participants as being speakers of other languages. For example, several participants noted that the service providers switched to Spanish, presumably because they perceived (correctly) that the participants were speakers of that language.…”

“…Several participants remarked that they persisted in speaking French even after the service providers switched to English, and explained that they simply told the service provider that they were "working on speaking French and wanted to practice" or "I stayed in French and told her I was sorry for my French but that I wanted to practice." By raising awareness of the language switch phenomenon and focusing on communication strategies (such as those highlighted by Savignon and Sysoyev, 2005), L2 instructors can help prepare students for encounters in which their interlocutors switch to English (Callahan, 2009).…”

“…Although this type of accommodation has largely been viewed positively by the recipient in some studies (Beebe & Giles, 1984;Bourhis, 1984;Ylanne, 2008), it may be perceived negatively if the L2 speaker desires to use the target language (TL). Research has reported that accommodation through switching languages is not always appreciated (Callahan, 2009;Heller, 1982Heller, , 1992 because the L2 speaker may perceive the switch as a signal that they are not accepted as a member of the TL community. It is possible that the L2 speakers' perceptions about the service providers' language background may influence their reactions to a language switch.…”