Asymmetrical style of communication in Mandarin Chinese talk-in-interaction : pedagogical implications for TCSOL professionals

The paper gives a fine-grained examination of audio and video data collected from Mandarin Chinese talk-in-interaction providing empirical evidence of verbal and nonverbal asymmetries. Status, power distance, verbal and nonverbal dominance and asymmetrical style of talk-in-interaction between teachers and students who speak Mandarin Chinese are discussed. The paper summarizes the features of communication characteristic of high-context and low-context cultures and draws implications for Chinese language educational professionals in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages.