1. Introduction and general aim

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss some problems related to the study of multimodal communication in the case of multilingual speakers, above all the degree of variation that can be expected in their discourse styles and verbal-nonverbal expressive resources. This is the central focus of the VARCOM project, which will run for the next three years.

The VARCOM project seeks to explain variations in discourse styles in formal, oral texts produced by multilingual speakers, and variations in their language ideologies. The research will analyze and contrast the following: (a) the stylistic and expressive resources in the production of spoken texts in a variety of languages (Catalan, Spanish, English) and formats (narrative, descriptive, expositive, argumentative, and instructive texts); (b) the synchronization of stylistic and expressive resources in different channels and communicative modalities (verbal, non verbal, and intonative); (c) the speakers' language (and communicative) ideologies and their expectations regarding multilingualism in personal and professional domains.

2. Context, scope, and participants

The VARCOM project has been set up by a group of researchers financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (BFF2001-3866) and will be run by the Universitat de Barcelona from now until 2004. The project’s full title is "Variation, multimodal communication, and multilingualism: Discourse styles and language ideologies in oral texts", and the participants are:
a) L. Payrató (chief researcher), M. Àlamo, N. Alturo, F. Bernat, J. Besa, E. Boix, D. Casals, J. Fitó, M. Galindo, M. Juanhuix, À. Massip, N. Nogué, M. Payà, J. Solà, F.X. Vila.
b) M.P. Cadena, M. Fernández-Villanueva, O. Strunk (Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, Universitat de Barcelona)
c) P. Prieto (Departament de Filologia Catalana, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
d) J.P. Mora (Departamento de Lengua Española y Lingüística General, Universidad de Sevilla)

3. Specific objectives

The general aim of the project, mentioned above, can be divided into the following specific objectives:
(1) The design of discourse style typologies in multilingual speakers including (non-) verbal (sub)categories.
(2) The contrastive analysis of (non-)verbal stylistic and expressive resources used in oral texts in various formats (narration, description, exposition, argumentation, instruction).
(3) The description of synchronization and interaction mechanisms between communicative modalities (verbal, vocal and non-verbal).
(4) The study of language awareness in multilingual speakers and their expectations about multilingualism in personal and professional domains.
(5) The analysis of factors that determine the variation in discourse styles in the oral production of multilingual speakers (Catalan, Spanish, English).

4. Research context, informants and methodology

The context of this project is the research into the verbal and nonverbal behavior of multilingual speakers and their language awareness and ideologies. Fifteen informants (all of them Catalan-Spanish bilinguals with an intermediate level of proficiency in English) will be interviewed in three individual sessions (in a different language in each session). Informants are undergraduate students (from the business studies faculty) who were at school during 1980s and 1990s, and grouped as follows: five bilinguals with Catalan as L1 (or dominant language), five with Spanish as L1, and five with no predominant language (family bilinguals).

Each of the three sessions is structured in the same way, but the interviewer is a different person in each case. A range of elicitation techniques – the same for the three languages – are used depending on the text type: (a) narrative, (b) descriptive, (c) expositive, (d) argumentative, (e) instructive. The production of oral texts is related both to (1) experiential topics (the informant’s room, his/her way home, a dangerous situation s/he has experienced...) and to (2) experimental stimuli (Frog story, photographs, invented maps...); (3) semidirected interviews based on open questionnaires are designed for eliciting information about language awareness and ideologies. All the sessions are videorecorded with two cameras (one for the general scene and the other focusing on the facial expression of the informant). Data will be compiled in DVD format to constitute a first corpus of comparable samples with several variables (in order to allow consultation and contrast):
(1) The language of production (Catalan, Spanish, English)
(2) The first language of the informant (Catalan, Spanish, or both)
(3) The text type (narrative, descriptive, expositive, argumentative, and instructive)
(4) The kind of elicitation technique (experiential or experimental, in one hand, and induced production of texts in contrast with free conversation, on the other)
If possible, all the induced texts and conversations will be transcribed in full. Data will be processed following the usual standards in corpus research, and data will be analyzed with both quantitative and qualitative techniques and tools. We plan to use another group of informants (philology students speaking German) as a control or reference group.

5. Parameters of (non-)verbal discursive styles

The definition of communicative styles is a complex, controversial subject. This project is designed to highlight some topics related to the design of verbal and nonverbal typologies and styles. As far as gesture is concerned, we will try to establish comparisons and categories depending on a number of parameters including the following:
(1) Total number of gestures
(2) Total number of specific classes of gestures:
      (2.1) coverbal gestures (illustrators)
             (2.1.1) spatial / deictic gestures
      (2.2) other gestures
             (2.2.1) emblems
             (2.2.2) regulators
             (2.2.3) emotional expressions
             (2.2.4) adaptors
(3) Relative number of gestures in relation to:
    (3.1) text type
          (3.1.1) narration
          (3.1.2) description
          (3.1.3) exposition
          (3.1.4) argumentation
          (3.1.5) instruction
    (3.2) illocutionary act
          (3.2.1) representative
          (3.2.2) exhortative
          (3.2.3) expressive
          (3.2.4) commissive
          (3.2.5) declaration
    (3.3) semantic content
    (3.4) syntactic clause
    (3.5) intonation unit

6. Contributions of the project

Generally speaking, the VARCOM project aims to broaden our understanding of the mechanisms of oral communication, both verbal and nonverbal. More specifically, we aim to improve our knowledge of variation in the case of multilingual speakers performing the same tasks in their different languages. Special emphasis will be placed on the synchronization of multimodal signals, the categorization of discursive styles, and the language awareness of the informants.
We expect that the results of the project will be useful and applicable in a range of domains, such as (a) the development of tools for the improvement of communicative strategies of speakers, (b) the design of automatic data processing protocols for oral language, and (c) the standardization of proceedings of data elicitation and data compilation in accessible corpora.

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