Communication Failure in Intercultural Interactions between Algerian Learners of Turkish and Native Turkish people

Abstract

This dissertation aims at investigating the frequency of cross-cultural pragmatic failure in verbal communication between Algerian learners of Turkish and Turkish natives, as well as exploring the reasons behind such intercultural communicative breakdown. One objective for the study was to discover the relationship between pragmatic failure and the influence of dissimilar cultures on the process of cross-cultural confrontations. Another important objective was to inquire about the situations in which misunderstandings can be prevented and successful communication can be achieved. To this end, the study opted for a mixed-method approach to analyze the data gathered from a total sample of 27 participants, including both Algerian learners of Turkish and natives from Turkey. In addition to interviewing the participants who had already engaged in cross cultural interactions, we used a questionnaire to obtain additional results. Another research tool was the case study of the online verbal conversations between Algerians and Turks. The findings suggest that cases of pragmatic failure are common between Algerian speakers of Turkish and native Turks. The results show an exclusive connection between these cases of misunderstanding and a lack of cultural background or knowledge of the target language. Other reasons, such as negative pragmatic transfer and certain social factors like gender and profession, all contributed to failure in communication. Moreover, the methods of learning the Turkish language used by Algerian speakers showed a direct effect on their development of communicative skills and cultural background. The study puts forward some suggestions for how to avoid this kind of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural verbal communication in the future.