The Role of Prosody in International Communication in English in Call Center Interactions

This paper examines outsourced call center interactions to illustrate how these contexts can enhance pronunciation analysis and training. Public opinion in the United States and the United Kingdom regarding the perceived “pronunciation problems” of agents based in call centers in Outer‐Circle English‐speaking countries is typically negative. However, it is often difficult for researchers to pinpoint the specific issues involved, as access to authentic calls is scarce. This paper reports an investigation into the role that the differing use of prosodic conventions can play in call center interactions recorded in the Philippines between Filipinos and North Americans. A microethnographic analysis of call center data focused on prosodic features of interaction suggests that, where conflict occurs, it is mirrored in the prosodic features of the interaction. This has important implications for modeling effective interaction and training for high‐stakes contexts.