“I agree!” empathetic head-nodding and its role in cultural competences development

The development of cultural competences between interlocutors with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds has become a particularly fruitful area of interest in the L2 arena. One area that has not gained much attention is the role empathy plays in the development of cultural competences. In this exploratory study, five students with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds volunteered to join a five-week class. As for empathetic behavioral markers, using vetted assessment procedures, we look at the frequency of head-nodding and consider various perspectives as to what the raw numbers are indicating. Our results suggest that empathetic head-nodding increases as interlocutors develop more trust with one another; it increases for individuals designated as leaders; it either increases or decreases based upon cultural norms; it decreases when there are distractions and also when interlocutors cannot relate to the topic being discussed. As this study acts as a stepping-stone, it is hoped that researchers who are interested in intercultural and L2 interaction as well as those who are concerned about how empathy is expressed, both in linguistic and paralinguistic ways, will not only find value in the present study but will augment and broaden the scope of its findings.