The Communication of Advice on an Online Message Board for Language Assistants in France

Social Support and Intercultural Adaptation

Individuals entering into a new culture (hereafter referred to as sojourners) experience a great deal of uncertainty and stress, motivating them to interact with others who can provide information to help them understand their situation or alleviate any self-doubts (Adelman, 1988). Gudykunst’s (2005) anxiety/uncertainty management theory provides ample evidence that sojourners often feel a strong desire to gain information and support necessary to cope with unfamiliar situations and reduce the anxiety and uncertainty that arise from cultural adaptation. Kim’s (2001) integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation (ITCCA) assumes that individuals come to a place of cultural adaptation through a process of stress → adaptation → growth. That is, as a sojourner experiences stress, he or she responds by incorporating necessary adaptations to mitigate that stressor, which results in growth that may, in the end, lead to an intercultural identity. Communication is at the core of ITCCA. It is through communication with others that sojourners are able to best manage adaptation stress and engage in the adaptation process. Building on the assumptions of these theories, Fontaine (1996) and many others have argued that social support systems are crucial for the success of individuals living overseas.

However, research has shown that sojourners usually do not have adequate support networks when they first arrive in a new culture (Kim, 1987), and although communication with people in the host culture is essential for adaptation, sojourners may often find it necessary to seek support from other sources as well. To illustrate, Ward and Kennedy (1994) noted that sojourning New Zealanders identified with host nationals to build competence within the host culture, but they identified with other conationals to deter depression and feelings of loneliness. Similarly, Johnson, Kristof-Brown, Van Vianen, De Pater, and Klein (2003) surveyed expatriates (mostly Dutch) working in 40 different locations outside the Netherlands. Participants reported receiving more social support from other expatriates than from the host nationals. However, both were an important source of information about the host culture. Simeon and Fujiu (2000) noted that Japanese expatriate spouses living in the United States were better adapted when they had support from personal (e.g., family and friends) and impersonal (e.g., media such as books, newspapers, television, etc.) sources of support and information in both Japan and the United States.

In other words, social support messages for individuals living abroad can come from multiple sources, and they are often most successful when they do. Host nationals are often useful sources of information about the host culture, but close relationships and understanding are often difficult to maintain. Conversely, close friends and family are often strong sources of support, but they also tend to be geographically distant from the recipient and lack the experience necessary to relate to the troubles that their overseas loved ones face. As such, sojourners often turn to conationals currently adapting to the same culture or those who have adapted to the same culture before (also known as comparable others) as sources of support (e.g., Lin, 2006; Major, 2005; Ward & Rana-Dueba, 2000).

It has been argued that overreliance on conationals in the long-term adaptation process often serves as a barrier to successful adaptation when these relationships take the place of relationships with host nationals (Fontaine, 1996; Kim, 2001). However, at the beginning stages of the adaptation process or for short-term sojourners, conationals can be highly valuable sources of information and support (Pitts, 2009). Because they are also experiencing (or have experienced) similar challenges, sojourners often turn to conationals during the adaptation process because they are uniquely able to provide an insider perspective about unfamiliar and/or problematic situations. In an ethnographic study of American students’ adaptation to French culture during a semester-long study abroad program, Pitts found evidence that communication about the adaptation experience with other American students in the same program played an important role in their ability to effectively adapt to their new surroundings.

Additionally, less intimate sources of support such as that coming from comparable others can be preferable to closer relationships because there is often less risk to face in gaining support from non-intimates (Adelman, 1988). Comparable others are often separate from our other social networks and are sometimes referred to in the literature as “weak ties.” Individuals can often disclose face-damaging information to comparable others with little worry that this information will be passed along to their close friends, family, or host nationals. The concept of weak ties may be applied to a “wide range of potential supporters who lie beyond the primary network of family and friends” (Albrecht & Adelman 1987, p. 126), and they can be imperative for providing support in times when our strong ties are less available to us. When individuals move or stay abroad their close ties are often unable to provide enough support, and weak ties become necessary for daily survival (Adelman, 1988).

The Internet as a Source of Social Support

Online venues, such as discussion board forums, can be a rich source of connections to comparable others as weak ties for nearly every support situation a person could encounter. In fact, the wide availability of weak ties as a source of social support is perceived to be a particular strength of computer-mediated communication (CMC; Garton, Haythornthwaite, & Wellman, 1997).

The evidence supporting the use of the Internet as a source of social support with positive outcomes is wide and varied in the context of health communication (e.g., Beaudoin & Tao, 2008; Braithwaite, Waldron, & Finn, 1999; Cummings, Sproull, & Kiesler, 2002; Turner, Grube, & Meyers, 2001; van Uden-Kraan et al., 2008). As an example, Wright (1999) revealed that in an examination of participants in 24 online social support groups for a range of issues (e.g., alcohol/substance abuse, eating disorders, terminal illness, divorce), the majority viewed these support groups as a beneficial supplement to their face-to-face social networks. Walther and Boyd (2002) surveyed Usenet support group users (for a wide variety of support and recovery issues) and found that users are particularly attracted to the support that they can receive through online communities because of greater access to individuals with similar experiences, protection from face threat through anonymity, greater freedom in interaction management than in face-to-face communication situations, and access at all times to support rather than being required to wait until off-line support sources are available.

In the context of intercultural adaptation, it is clear that the Internet often serves as a primary channel for receiving social support from friends and family in the home culture. Sojourners receiving social support from friends and family back home via e-mail and other Internet sources perceived the same types of benefits from the CMC as from personal visits from friends and family (Cox, 2004). Additionally, Cemalcilar, Falbo, and Stapleton (2005) noted that CMC used for communicating with friends and family in the home culture and keeping up-to-date with news and entertainment about the home culture significantly predicted perceived levels of social support, which directly influenced psychological adjustment (an individual’s sense of well-being) and indirectly predicted sociocultural adjustment (the ability to participate constructively in the host culture). Ye (2005) found that East Asian international students in the United States used the Internet primarily to build English proficiency, deal with culture shock, and find a place for entertainment and relaxation. Additionally, participants reported that the use of the Internet had a positive impact on the reduction of their acculturative stress.

However, there is less understanding about the functions of online support groups composed of comparable others in the adaptation process. Ye (2006b) reported that East Asian international students’ perceived support from interpersonal relationships with the host culture predicted both psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation. Support from the home culture via friends and family was important for psychological adjustment, and online social support groups improved sociocultural adaptation only. In another study, Ye (2006a) found that Chinese international students with lower levels of acculturative stress also perceived themselves as having more informational and emotional support from online conational social groups. Chen and Choi (2011) found that 90% of Chinese migrants to Singapore who had access to the Internet sought social support through online means.

Of the studies that have looked at the actual communication of social support in CMC, most are limited to health-related contexts (e.g., Braithwaite et al., 1999; Buis, 2007; Coulson, Buchanan, & Aubeeluck, 2007; Cutrona & Suhr, 1992) Typically, content analyses of online social support have used Cutrona and Suhr’s (1992) social support coding scheme, which was originally designed for face-to-face interactions. It classifies supportive communication as belonging to five categories, or support types:

informational support (providing information about the stress itself or how to deal with it), tangible assistance (providing or offering to provide goods or services needed in the stressful situation), esteem support (communicating respect and confidence in abilities), social network support (communicating belonging to a groups of persons with similar interests and concerns), and emotional support (communicating love or caring). (p. 159)

This coding scheme was adapted and employed by Braithwaite et al. (1999) to code social support messages on an online forum for people with disabilities. They found that the categories worked equally well in online contexts, and several other researchers have used it with success to examine support groups for people with diseases such as celiac disease and muscular dystrophy (Buis, 2007) or Huntington’s disease (Coulson et al., 2007).

One consistent finding in the literature is that the social support provided depends greatly on the particular stressor being experienced by the recipients of social support, as predicted by the optimal matching hypothesis (Cutrona, 1990; Cutrona & Russell, 1990). Specifically, the level of controllability of a stressor can have a significant impact on the types of social support individuals experiencing the stressor need (Cutrona & Suhr, 1992). In examinations of online support groups for various illnesses, the communication about the disease with the highest level of controllability (i.e., celiac disease) was primarily informative in nature, whereas the communication about the disease with the least amount of controllability (i.e., muscular dystrophy) was much more emotionally supportive (Buis, 2007). Coulson et al. (2007) also noted that an online support group for individuals affected by Huntington’s disease (a disease with a very low degree of controllability) was dominated by communication that could be classified as emotional support.

Applying these findings to the context of this particular study, most problematic situations for short-term sojourners (e.g., international students or individuals on short-term work contracts) are controllable if sojourners have the knowledge necessary to handle them. The sojourner experience is more than often voluntary, and it is generally more positive than negative. In a longitudinal study of Americans’ time abroad as international students, Ryan and Twibell (2000) found that their experiences were often challenging, but not threatening. According to Chen and Choi (2011), informational support was by far the most frequently sought online support by Chinese individuals adapting to Singaporean culture. In fact, more than one third of participants in Chen and Choi’s study used the Internet to seek informational support at least once or twice a day. Ye (2006a) reported similar findings. As such, it is to be expected that websites related to individuals adapting to another culture would be primarily composed of informational support.

Advice Giving

One particularly notable form of informative support is advice, defined as messages that provide recipients with directives, opinions, or suggestions about how to solve a particular problem (Goldsmith, 2004). Individuals experiencing difficulties or confusion in their lives often turn to or are approached by friends, family members, professionals, and even strangers to gain insight about how they should cope with their situation. The Internet can be a rich source of advice for countless human situations (Locher, 2006a).

The communication of advice is a common occurrence in most relationships. However, not all advice is perceived positively. Advice givers may be seen as “know-it-alls” when their advice is unwelcome (Decapua & Huber, 1995). Advice recipients may also feel that advice givers see them as lacking competence in a particular area (Hutchby, 1995). Advice, especially in Western cultures, is considered to be a face-threatening act (Locher & Hoffman, 2006). The connection between advice and face threat is explicated through Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory. According to this theory, advice is a highly face-threatening act because it can potentially damage the face of both the advice giver as well as the recipient. As such, it is assumed that advice should be carefully constructed to ensure that it protects the face of all involved and serves as a positive form of social support.

According to Goldsmith’s (2004) advice model, a vital factor in determining the appropriateness, utility, and face protection of advice (key features in determining its worth) is the way the advice is brought up in a conversation. Specifically, advice can be directly solicited by the recipient, indirectly solicited by the recipient, directly initiated by the giver, or indirectly initiated by the giver. Advice messages directly solicited by the recipient are considered the least threatening to a recipient’s face. However, an advice request can be quite face threatening to the person asked to give advice because of fears that the wrong advice will be given or that the advice provided will not meet the recipient’s expectations. Conversely, messages that are indirectly solicited or initiated by the giver carry the most risk for damaging recipients’ needs for autonomy but provide a chance for the giver to have more control over when and how advice is communicated.

Second, from extensive reviews of advice research, Goldsmith (2004) has developed conclusions about some of the ways that the communicative features of an advice message can influence its appropriateness, utility, and face protection. Specifically, the style of advice messages can vary in directness and the communication of solidarity or deference. Communicators giving direct advice adopt a position of expertise and a right to direct the recipient’s behavior. Essentially, direct advice tells the recipient what exactly he or she should do to resolve his or her problematic situation. Indirect advice, conversely, does not explicitly state that the recipient must take a recommended action. Messages high in solidarity show that the giver likes and approves of a recipient. Deferent messages, on the other hand, establish distance between the advice-giver and recipient.

Using Goldsmith’s (2004) model of advice giving provides an established theoretical background and allows for the identification of possible patterns in the communication of advice in an online context. However, most, if not all, of the research cited in Goldsmith’s book is based on face-to-face interactions. Therefore, in addition to using the assumptions of Goldsmith’s model, additional advice features specific to this particular context were examined.

From previous research examining advice in an online context, we can see that computer-mediated advice does indeed share commonalities with face-to-face interactions, but there are some unique characteristics to communication in this context, especially in terms of the structure of advice conversations. Morrow (2006) explored the structure of advice conversations on an online discussion forum for individuals with depression. He found that conversations typically contain a problem message, advice message, and thanks message. Problem messages include at least one of the following components: a description of a problem, expressions of feelings, and requests for advice or support. Advice messages contain direct or indirect suggestions for actions to be taken, which are framed by other content such as descriptions of the advice giver’s own personal experiences and expressions of solidarity or regard for the advice seeker. Thanks messages involve the original poster’s return to provide appreciation and/or acknowledgement that the advice message(s) were received.

Building on the findings of Locher (2006b) and Pudlinski (1998), Harrison and Barlow (2009) examined an online community for individuals with arthritis and found that most advice present on the site was indirect. In particular, narratives were a large part of the advice-giving process. Many participants in Harrison and Barlow’s study would indirectly provide advice by explaining their own experiences, the actions they have taken, and the results of those actions. Narratives show that the advice giver is experienced enough to be qualified to provide advice as well as communicates empathy. Other researchers have made note that narratives are an important characteristic of online support (e.g., Walther & Boyd, 2002).

From the findings of these studies (Goldsmith, 2004; Harrison & Barlow, 2009; Morrow, 2006) and others cited in this article, the following research questions guided this research project.

Method

Results

To address the study’s three research questions, we first looked at the way advice was initiated within a topic thread (Research Question 1).From this analysis, advice was found to be unsolicited directly solicited, or indirectly solicited. The topics being discussed in each thread were very closely related to the heading and subheading from which they were sampled (e.g., “where you live”). Although topics differed, there were no major differences in the structure of the advice messages that could be found among the website headings. Next, responses to advice-seeking messages were examined for common characteristics (Research Question 2) and evidence that forum participants were cognizant of the appropriateness, utility, and face protection of their advice-giving messages (Research Question 3).

Discussion

This study adds to our understanding of supportive communication in several important ways. First, it is clear that current coding categories available for examining supportive communication, and specifically advice communication, are insufficient for describing the complex context of online communication. This study shows that Goldsmith (2004) has developed a helpful framework from which to begin to better understand online advice communication, but it is incomplete. Morrow (2006) and Harrison and Barlow (2009) have contributed important knowledge to our understanding of how advice communication works in an online context. The present study adds further to this knowledge.

The appropriateness, usefulness, and relational and identity implications of any support message are deeply bound in the context of the interaction. For example, Goldsmith’s (2004) model states that the solicitation of advice can greatly influence the ways that advice will be received. However, the context of a discussion board such as this one leads most advice conversations to be directly solicited by an advice seeker. There seems to be the assumption, based on the purpose and culture of the site, that visitors to the site are seeking advice, even when they do not directly ask for it. Therefore, there appear to be other factors affecting the production of advice messages, leading advice givers to seek out other clues within a message to determine what the advice recipient wants and needs. In this context, the specificity and emotionality of advice-seeking message may be more important than in face-to-face communication in determining the ways that advice givers construct their messages to enhance the appropriateness, usefulness, and face protection of the advice.

Within the context of intercultural adaptation, this site appears to be a useful resource to its members in terms of gaining necessary information about life and work in France. The weak ties that are formed through the website allow sojourners a space to ask questions about any aspect of life in France they are confused or curious about, rant about difficult circumstances, commiserate with others in similar situations as themselves, and develop relationships with others. For many participants, the connections they are able to make on this website to individuals knowledgeable about their particular situation would not be possible otherwise. This may, for many participants, be an important source of resources for the adaptation process (as predicted by the ITCCA; Kim, 2001).

These weak ties may provide many benefits to website users, most notably serving as a highly knowledgeable resource that language assistants may turn to whenever they have a question or concern. At the same time, online support (just as any other support) is not without potential problems. Weak-tie support is considered to be more superficial than support that comes from those who know us very well (strong ties) and may not be sufficient to alleviate a very stressful situation (Wright, 2000). Therefore, if users of this website have no other source for support except for this community, they may find that the support provided is insufficient for their needs. Additionally, there is the possibility that advice recipients may be exposed to hostile messages mixed in with supportive ones, which, if taken seriously, could be highly damaging to the support process (Walther, 1996). Nonetheless, in this data set, there were no overtly hostile messages found, either because they are very rare on the website of analysis or because website moderators remove problematic posts when they are found. Finally, with an open forum, it is possible that not all advice or information provided will be useful or accurate (Constant, Sproull, & Kiesler, 1996). It is the responsibility of the advice recipient (and other advice providers) to sort through the information they are provided to select the most useful advice for their particular situation.

Online discussion boards are a unique and ubiquitous context for supportive communication. Whereas much support and advice research presumes that the number of people involved in the supportive communication is limited, discussion boards involve any number of participants and observers. For example, the advice that is communicated among several participants within a topic thread could be read and used by hundreds of readers (and post view counts available through the website tells us that many topic threads are), placing the impact of advice messages on intercultural adaptation well beyond those who are part of the actual interaction. Users appear to be cognizant of this, such as shown in Extract 5, “I was just trying to reply to a more general assistant situation,” or Extract 6, “the experience of those who have gone before you will pave the way.” Thus, the awareness that others may read and use the advice that is presented to one user may often lead advice givers to address their messages to a larger audience unless specific advice for a particular situation is needed. The website, then, serves as a database of information about the language assistant experience in France as well as a community of individuals in common circumstances.

The possibility for anonymity may also influence the ways that people construct their messages, helping them feel more comfortable with disclosing face-damaging information or provide advice messages to others. However, despite anonymity, most participants do appear to be careful to protect the face of everyone involved. The website appears to be a community space where participants are expected to be respectful of one another and genuinely supportive of fellow users.

There are several limitations to this study. First, the findings could likely be strengthened with a larger sample of topics. The small size of the sample limited the examples available for unsolicited, indirect, and emotional, advice-seeking messages. Further instances of each of these features would have allowed for a more complete understanding of them. Additionally, the sample included a diverse array of problematic situations including classrooms, living situations, French culture and policies, or packing lists. A narrower focus of topics could help control for possible differences in advice based on the topic of conversation itself.

In conclusion, this study adds to our understanding of online communication in supportive contexts, as well as Internet communication in general. Specifically, it has given a closer look to an often overlooked source of support for individuals adapting to a foreign culture and provides us with a deeper understanding of how people experiencing a similar situation can work together to share information, insights, and support that aid everyone involved in dealing with the uncertainties of life.