Interaction involvement and patterns of topical talk: A comparison of intercultural and intracultural dyads

Abstract The present study is an attempt to investigate whether people's discourse production in intercultural vs. intracultural settings is related to variation in self-perceived interaction involvement. In consideration of the most striking contrast between two settings — the differences between communication partners' shared cultural background and the first language, this study focused on one aspect of discourse production, topic selection, with regard to the patterning of topic types in conversation. Data were collected from subjects having a dyadic conversation in a lab, in two contrasting settings (intercultural and intracultural). The analyses indicate that interaction involvement indeed influences message production at the subtle level of topic selection, such that LIIs and HIIs adapt in different ways to the situational difference (talking to strangers in intracultural vs. intercultural setting). At the same time, it was shown that the effect of situational differences is much greater, and both groups made adjustments in topic selection for participation in conversations in different settings.