Repetition as an Involvement Strategy in ELF Conversational Interaction

English has become the chosen medium to facilitate successful communication among people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In this regard, of fundamental importance is how the speakers of English of varying degree of proficiency achieve mutual understanding in this medium. Mutual understanding in conversational discourse presupposes conversational involvement. This study addresses the conversational involvement in English as a lingua franca (ELF) context with particular emphasis on a single involvement strategy of repetition used to achieve varied purposes. Within the conversational analytic framework, this paper investigates how the participants in interactions employ repetition as an involvement strategy in interactional discourses, especially conversational discourses for varied purposes. Twenty one hours of transcribed audio recordings of naturally occurring spoken interactions in ELF contexts 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 a proper use of repetition as an involvement strategy. The findings give some pedagogical and social implications for being aware of communicative value of involvement strategies in ELF contexts.