The course will be concerned with people's methods for accomplishing learning and the interactional evidence researchers rely on to make claims about such methods. Furthermore, it will give insight into characteristics of interaction between first and second language speakers, for instance how L1 speakers adapt to the perceived proficiency level of L2 speakers and seek to preempt understanding problems. The data will come from both formal, pedagogic activities and informal conversations outside the classroom (‘in the wild’). Addressing methodological issues and challenges, the course will give hands-on experience with analyzing recordings of video- and audio-recorded conversations using a conversation analytic methodology.
Topics covered:
- Conversation Analysis as an approach to L2 learning and interaction
- Methodological issues in studying L2 interaction longitudinally
- Methodological challenges of eclecticism
- L2 interactional competence and its development
- L2 Grammar-in-interaction
- L2 talk as atypical interaction?
- Language learning in the classroom and ‘in the wild’
- Securing understanding in L2 interaction
Instructors:
Simona Pekarek Doehler is professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Neuch?tel, Switzerland. In her research she seeks to understand how participants to talk-in-interaction use grammar in concert with bodily conduct as a resource to accomplish social actions and how, in turn, linguistic and communicative resources emerge from the process of interaction. A second line of her research is dedicated to exploring the development of interactional competence in a second language, including the methodological challenges that arise when it comes to documenting change across time in situated social interactions.
S?ren Wind Eskildsen is an associate professor of Second Language (L2) Acquisition at the University of Southern Denmark in S?nderborg. His primary research interest concerns the usage-based processes and practices in L2 learning, in situ and over time, as seen through the lenses of usage-based models of language and conversation analysis. Other interests include the role of gestures and other embodied conduct in L2 learning and interaction. He works with both in- and out-of-class L2 data and with both adult and child L2 learning.
Jan Svennevig is Professor of Language and Communication at MultiLing - Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan. His research deals with practices used by L1 speakers for securing understanding and preempting understanding problems in conversations with L2 speakers. He has performed research in various institutional settings, such as workplace meetings, construction site interaction, doctor-patient consultations, police investigative interviews and medical emergency calls.