There are few studies on backchannels in ELF and none concerns computer-mediated conversations. Backchannelling has been associated with good listenership and enhanced cooperativeness, an intrinsic feature of ELF. They would also play a key role in computer-mediated communication, maintaining a sense of affective equilibrium among participants and compensating for medium-related limitations. We analyze backchanneling in an ELF conversation between a Spanish female and a German male student from the Corpus of Video-Mediated English as a Lingua Franca Conversations (ViMELF). Backchanneling seems to be particularly intense in the opening and closing sections of the exchange, where interpersonal work is the most needed. While significant idiolectal differences are observed between the two participants, both show a marked preference for and a tendency to concentrate realizations on a few weak backchanneling forms, conferring the exchange a general impression of monotony and emotional flatness. Some backchanneling features in the exchange may be described as typical of ELF: backchannels tend to occur in moments when speakers sense that understanding may be compromised and are frequently complemented by supportive material reinforcing the speaker’s point. The analysis also reveals some characteristic awkward usage, with tokens which are clearly “overdone,” while others are too weak and disappointing or behave disruptively by occurring in unexpected positions and interrupting the flow of the conversation. Research on ELF video conversations is particularly timely given the recent surge in videoconferencing propitiated by the COVID pandemic, a tendency which is likely to stay in post-pandemic times.

中文翻译：

---

视频介导的 ELF 对话中的反向渠道：案例研究

关于 ELF 中反向通道的研究很少，也没有涉及计算机介导的对话。反向通道与良好的倾听和增强的合作性有关，这是 ELF 的内在特征。它们还将在以计算机为媒介的交流中发挥关键作用，维持参与者之间的情感平衡感并补偿与媒介相关的限制。我们分析了来自视频中介英语语料库 (ViMELF) 的西班牙女性和德国男学生之间的 ELF 对话中的反向通道。反向通道似乎在交易所的开始和结束部分特别强烈，其中最需要人际工作。虽然在两位参与者之间观察到显着的方言差异，两者都表现出明显的偏好并倾向于将实现集中在一些弱的反向通道形式上，从而赋予交流单调和情绪平坦的一般印象。交流中的一些反向通道特征可以被描述为 ELF 的典型特征：反向通道往往发生在说话者感觉到理解可能会受到损害的时刻，并且经常被支持性材料补充以强化说话者的观点。分析还揭示了一些典型的尴尬用法，明显“过度”的标记，而其他标记太弱和令人失望，或者通过出现在意想不到的位置并打断对话流程而表现出破坏性。鉴于最近由 COVID 大流行推动的视频会议激增，对 ELF 视频对话的研究特别及时，