Practicing deliberation in challenging speech cultures: the role of metadiscourse.

This article investigates how metadiscourse—language that comments on talk itself—enables participants in Israeli structured deliberative forums to navigate tensions between deliberative democracy discourse and Israeli speech culture, which is often characterized by confrontational and divisive communication styles. Drawing on language and social interaction approaches, the study analyzes deliberations conducted by communication graduate students in Israel, revealing that participants use metadiscursive strategies to frame cultural challenges, negotiate or moderate tensions, and creatively integrate local speech norms with deliberative practices. The findings suggest that rather than culture strictly determining deliberation's feasibility, participants actively negotiate and adapt deliberative norms within their cultural context, thereby developing a culturally specific form of deliberation termed "Israeli deliberation." This research contributes to deliberative democracy theory and pedagogy by highlighting the role of metadiscourse and stance-taking in managing cultural challenges to deliberation and offers a framework applicable to other contexts where local speech cultures intersect with normative communication ideals.