A Note on the Concept of “Grounding” as it Relates to Other Similar Theories

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Grounding (Clark and Schaefer, 1989) is the process by which people, in order to add to their pool of shared information, strive to gain confidence in mutual understanding by providing each other with positive evidence of understanding. It is one that has been suggested to be of use to English language teachers at Japanese elementary schools (see Nakashima & Hine, 2021) as well as junior high school (see Nakashima & Hine, 2022); however, it is not a concept that is widely talked about in the realm of EFL education. As such, in order to raise awareness of grounding, this paper aims to mpare it to other more commonly discussed theories. New English language curricula are being currently implemented at Japanese ementary schools and junior high schools, with elementary school teachers being encouraged to perform interactions with their classes in English ( so called ‘small talk’), and junior igh school English language teachers being directed to teach English language using English in order to maximise the students’ exposure to the language (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [MEXT], 2017). It is in this context that Nakashima & Hine (2021, 2022) suggested that the concept of ‘grounding’ (Clark and Schaefer, 1989) might prove to be an important concept for teachers working at Japanese elementary schools and junior high schools. However, the concept of grounding does not seem to have much of a presence in current EFL education literature, so this paper will have a brief look at how it relates to two other relevant and more well-known theories.

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