ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of critical phatic communion in terms of Mead's (1934/1967) concept of the creativeIand the conforming me as possible tensions and conflicts may arise between FL interlocutors’ individualistic and distinctive need for authentic self-expression and the social need to conform to community norms and practices. Critical phatic communion focuses on how foreign language (FL) interactants, consciously or unintentionally, adopt an interactional stance in order to express their feelings and emotions (Englebretson, 2007; Tracy & Robles, 2013) and at the same time are being themselves positioned by other target-language interactants. Finally, I examine whether research participants feel that small talk allows them to project their individuality/personality and to consider their level of ease/difficulty when engaging in FL small talk.
