MEANING NEGOTIATION AND PRAGMATIC MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A REFLEXIVE STUDY

This reflexive qualitative study examines intercultural pragmatic misunderstandings and the processes of meaning negotiation in everyday English interactions within multicultural settings. Drawing on four real-life incidents experienced by the author, the study moves beyond identifying socio-pragmatic mismatches to analyze how interlocutors recognize, respond to, and repair breakdowns in communication. Although the interactions involved fluent English speakers, misunderstandings emerged from culturally embedded expectations surrounding reassurance, hospitality, compliments, and refusals. Guided by theories of intercultural pragmatics, politeness, and pragmatic failure, the analysis demonstrates how face concerns, contextual assumptions, and cultural value systems shape interpretation in real time. Importantly, the findings reveal that meaning is not passively received but actively negotiated through clarification, reformulation, contextual explanation, and adaptive stance-taking. These processes illustrate the dynamic co-construction of understanding across cultural boundaries. The study argues that successful intercultural communication depends not only on linguistic competence but also on interactional sensitivity and pragmatic flexibility. Pedagogically, it underscores the need to integrate pragmatic awareness, reflective inquiry, and negotiation strategies into language education. Methodologically, it highlights the value of reflexive narrative approaches in uncovering the lived processes of intercultural meaning-making often overlooked in experimental research.