Abstract The worldwide use of English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) has led to increased research of BELF that seeks to elucidate its complexities, and the multiple competencies of its users that contribute to its success. As much of previous BELF research has focused on verbal communication, little is known of how nonverbal conduct contributes to facilitating shared understanding in the business context. This paper focuses on the nonverbal communication strategies (NVCS) participants use as shared repertoire and resources in formal internal meeting interactions for successful and effective communication. Combining Community of Practice (CofP) and Conversation Analysis (CA) frameworks, and applying a multimodal approach, three video-recorded meetings were analyzed. The paper explores three salient NVCS: head nod, hand pointing gesture, and eye contact and gaze; each serves specific functions such as contextualizing or enhancing verbal communication, providing clarity and feedback, and making understanding visible. The findings not only contribute to the existing understanding of BELF but also offer an empirical basis regarding NVCS that may inform ESP: in business communication courses, raising awareness of effective NVCS based on authentic use in specific settings could provide valuable insights on communicative competence as part of the multiple competencies of BELF expert users.

中文翻译：

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BELF 专家用户：通过使用非语言沟通策略，在 BELF 内部会议中实现理解

摘要 英语作为商务通用语 (BELF) 的全球使用导致对 BELF 的研究不断增加，旨在阐明其复杂性，以及对其成功做出贡献的用户的多种能力。由于以前的 BELF 研究大部分都集中在口头交流上，因此对非语言行为如何有助于促进商业环境中的共同理解知之甚少。本文重点介绍非语言沟通策略 (NVCS) 参与者在正式内部会议互动中用作共享曲目和资源，以实现成功和有效沟通。结合实践社区 (CofP) 和对话分析 (CA) 框架，并应用多模式方法，分析了三个视频录制的会议。该论文探讨了三个突出的 NVCS：点头、手势、以及目光接触和凝视；每个都有特定的功能，例如上下文化或增强口头交流，提供清晰和反馈，并使理解可见。研究结果不仅有助于对 BELF 的现有理解，而且还提供了一个可能为 ESP 提供信息的 NVCS 的经验基础：在商业交流课程中，提高对基于特定环境中真实使用的有效 NVCS 的认识可以提供对交流能力的宝贵见解作为一部分BELF 专家用户的多种能力。