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Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance

This paper explores the oral communication behaviour of speakers involved in life insurance sales meetings. It is often argued that speakers adjust their speech to "accommodate" the person they are addressing. This situation may be more prominent in sales talk, which is acknowledged as goa...

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Main Authors: Ishak, Wan Irham, Rafik-Galea, Shameem
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2015
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/1/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/
http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2023%20%28S%29%20Dec.%202015/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf
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spelling my.upm.eprints.328732016-01-28T01:56:52Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/ Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance Ishak, Wan Irham Rafik-Galea, Shameem This paper explores the oral communication behaviour of speakers involved in life insurance sales meetings. It is often argued that speakers adjust their speech to "accommodate" the person they are addressing. This situation may be more prominent in sales talk, which is acknowledged as goal-orientated interaction with a specific structure, roles and patterns of language use. Using the communication accommodation theory (CAT), the authors attempt to show that the sellers (life insurance agents) and buyers (also known as prospects) of life insurance will use different accommodation strategies to ensure a sale or to reject a sale. Analysis of data from sales meetings provides some insights into the discourse of life insurance sales meeting conversations and management, including employment of accommodation strategies in the sales meetings. This paper addresses the role of speech accommodation by sellers and buyers of life insurance as seen in two life insurance sales meetings conducted in a specific region of Malaysia. The participants of the meetings were bilingual speakers of Malay, English and Chinese, and the competency level of spoken English differed from one participant to the other. The paper discusses the extent to which the participants used convergent and divergent strategies throughout the meetings to accommodate linguistic differences and difficulties, including the extent to which both the sellers and buyers of the life insurance were aware of the need to adjust their language according to the needs of their listeners in order to achieve the communicative purpose. Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2015 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/1/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf Ishak, Wan Irham and Rafik-Galea, Shameem (2015) Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 23 (spec. Dec.). pp. 143-157. ISSN 0128-7702; ESSN: 2231-8534 http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2023%20%28S%29%20Dec.%202015/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
language English
description This paper explores the oral communication behaviour of speakers involved in life insurance sales meetings. It is often argued that speakers adjust their speech to "accommodate" the person they are addressing. This situation may be more prominent in sales talk, which is acknowledged as goal-orientated interaction with a specific structure, roles and patterns of language use. Using the communication accommodation theory (CAT), the authors attempt to show that the sellers (life insurance agents) and buyers (also known as prospects) of life insurance will use different accommodation strategies to ensure a sale or to reject a sale. Analysis of data from sales meetings provides some insights into the discourse of life insurance sales meeting conversations and management, including employment of accommodation strategies in the sales meetings. This paper addresses the role of speech accommodation by sellers and buyers of life insurance as seen in two life insurance sales meetings conducted in a specific region of Malaysia. The participants of the meetings were bilingual speakers of Malay, English and Chinese, and the competency level of spoken English differed from one participant to the other. The paper discusses the extent to which the participants used convergent and divergent strategies throughout the meetings to accommodate linguistic differences and difficulties, including the extent to which both the sellers and buyers of the life insurance were aware of the need to adjust their language according to the needs of their listeners in order to achieve the communicative purpose.
format Article
author Ishak, Wan Irham
Rafik-Galea, Shameem
spellingShingle Ishak, Wan Irham
Rafik-Galea, Shameem
Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
author_facet Ishak, Wan Irham
Rafik-Galea, Shameem
author_sort Ishak, Wan Irham
title Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
title_short Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
title_full Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
title_fullStr Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
title_full_unstemmed Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
title_sort speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance
publisher Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
publishDate 2015
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/1/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/32873/
http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/Pertanika%20PAPERS/JSSH%20Vol.%2023%20%28S%29%20Dec.%202015/11%20JSSH%28S%29-0066-2015.pdf
_version_ 1643830716816949248
score 13.211869

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