Unimodal and Multimodal Feedback In Chinese and Swedish Mono-cultural and Intercultural Interactions ( a pilot study)

Communicative feedback in human-human and human-computer interaction is of interest to both language and ICT researchers. In this study, unimodal and multimodal feedback, produced by Chinese and Swedish interlocutors, has been investigated in four Chinese-Chinese, four Swedish-Swedish, and eight Chinese-Swedish informal dyadic videorecorded dialogs. We are investigating two issues: First, what are the typical unimodal and multimodal feedback expressions used by Chinese and Swedes in mono-cultural interactions? Second, what type of feedback do they use when they speak English in intercultural interactions? On the basis of our investigation, we describe similarities and differences between Chinese and Swedish participants in using unimodal and multimodal feedback.