This discourse-analy/cal study focuses on clarifica/on request in experimental social talk
between unacquainted people in 9 ELF conversa/ons between Japanese business persons and Indian
business persons. The Japanese par/cipants are business persons and engineers working in India. The
Indian business persons work for Japanese companies as engineers and interpreters. The data were
collected in a city in Southern India. Three of the groups have four par/cipants (two Japanese and two
Indians) and the other six groups have two par/cipants (one Japanese and one Indian).
The par/cipants were instructed to have 30 minutes first conversa/ons with new acquaintances.
Both Japanese par/cipants and Indian par/cipants claim in the follow-up interviews that they have
listening comprehension problems because of each other’s strong accent. Some/mes word orders and
choice of words are different from the standard English they have learned at school. I will illustrate 1)
types of clarifica/on requests in the data to avoid misunderstandings or non-understandings, 2) some
language behavior differences between Japanese and Indians, 2) the skills required in ELF social talk
interac/ons when facing the misunderstandings and non-understandings from the point of view of
English teaching.