Repetition as a Meaning Making Strategy in ELF Context

English has become the chosen medium to facilitate successful communication among people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Of fundamental importance is how the speakers of English of varying degree of proficiency achieve mutual understanding in this medium. This study addresses this by offering some inquiries into the process of meaning making or meaning negotiation in English as a lingua franca (ELF) context with particular emphasis on a single involvement strategy of repetition used to achieve mutual understanding. Using a conversational analytic framework, this paper investigates how the participants in interactions achieve shared understanding through meaning negotiation and how they strategically employ repetition to address and resolve understanding problems when they occur and achieve their goal. Fifteen hours of transcribed audio recordings of naturally occurring spoken interactions in ELF context between speakers of a range of first languages and cultural backgrounds were examined. The data analysis shows that ELF communication is successful as the participants make proper use of repetition strategy.