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Adapting authentic workplace talk for workplace training 519

24. Adapting authentic workplace talk for work-
place intercultural communication training

Jonathan Newton

1. Introduction

This paper describes the challenge of selecting and adapting recordings of auth-
entic workplace interactions for use in a workplace language programme. The
programme is designed to assist migrants to acculturate to the communicative
practices of the New Zealand workplace. Authentic interactions were taken
from a large corpus of recordings made in a wide range of blue and white collar
workplaces. While the interactions are largely intracultural, using this authentic
language allows us to identify important sociopragmatic features of workplace
language that are rarely highlighted in artificial materials used in intercultural
communication training and provides participants with resources that are di-
rectly relevant to their needs.

2. Using transcripts of authentic workplace talk to
develop intercultural communication skills 1

The use of authentic language in second language instruction has attracted
lively discussion and debate. The relevant issues are captured in a recent article
by Richard Day (2003), Authentic materials, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Debate
on the topic is wide-ranging, encompassing areas such as: the nature of authen-
ticity (Widdowson 1978; Breen 1985); distinctions between text and task auth-
enticity (Guariento and Morley 2001); the role of corpora of authentic language
in materials design and curricula (Carter 1998; Cook 1998; Kennedy 2003) –
as exemplified in the COBUILD project (Sinclair 1987); the value of simpli-
fication and simplified materials for reading instruction (Widdowson 1978;
Lynch 1996, Nation and Wang 1999); and classroom uses of authentic material
(Burns, Gollin and Joyce 1997; and detractors Cook 1997; Day 2003).
Among those who argue the case for authentic materials, Burns, Gollin and
Joyce (1997) claim that authentic spoken texts provide an important link to in-
teraction outside the classroom, and prepare students for the unpredictability
of everyday communication. Carter (1998) uses corpus data to demonstrate how
frequently occurring features of authentic conversation such as three-part ex-
changes, vague language, ellipsis, hedging, widespread use of discourse markers
and interruptions, are absent from scripted dialogues in published ELT materials.