Publisher Description

"This collection is the first to consistently adopt Conversation Analysis as an approach to second language interaction. By examining first and second language speakers' participation in a wide range of activities, it challenges the dominant view of 'nonnative speakers' as deficient communicators. Proposing instead to understand second language users' conversational participation as interactional achievement, the book makes a powerful case for 'ethnomethodological respecification' in second language research."Professor Gabriele Kasper, University of Hawai'iConversations involving speakers whose first language is not the language in which they are talking have become widespread in the globalized world. Migration, increased travel for business or pleasure, as well as communication through new technologies such as the internet make Second Language Conversations an increasingly common everyday event.In this book Conversation Analysis is used to explore natural, casual talk between speakers in a second language. The contributors shift emphasis away from controlled contexts such as the classroom towards more sociable environments in which people go about their daily routines. English, German, French, Japanese, Finnish and Danish are all analyzed as second languages within a variety of professional, educational and sociable situations.This collection of essays aims to present naturally occurring Second Language Conversations in order to show what speakers in these situations do; how they utilize first language conversational practices, and whether or not grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation help or hinder the construction of meaning.

Author Biography

Rod Gardner is Senior Lecturer in the School of Linguistics, University of New South Wales. Johannes Wagner is Lecturer in the School of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark.

Table of Contents

1. Ways of 'Doing Being Plurilingual' in International Work Meetings - Lorenza Mondada; 2. Brokering and Membership in a Multilingual Community of Practice - Terkel Skarup; 3. Clients or Language Learners - Being a Non-Native Speaker in Institutional Interaction - Salla Kurhila; 4. Embedded Corrections in Second Language Talk - Catherine E. Brouwer, Gitte Rasmussen and Johannes Wagner; 5. Doing Pronunciation: A Specific Type of Repair Sequence - Catherine E. Brouwer; 6. Some Preliminary Thoughts on Delay as an Interactional Resource - Jean Wong; 7. The Logic of Clarification. Some Observations about Word-Clarification Repairs in Finnish-as-a-Lingua Franca Interactions - Harrie Mazeland and Minna Zaman-Zadeh; 8. Pursuit of Understanding: Rethinking 'Negotiation of Meaning' in View of Projected Action - Junko Mori; 9. Inside First and Second Language Speaker's Trouble in Understanding - Maria Egbert, Lilo Niebecker, Sabrina Rezzara; 10. Restarts in Novice Turn-Beginnings: Dysfluencies or Interactional Achievements - Donald Carroll; 11. Talk and Gesture: The Embodied Completion of Sequential Actions in Spoken Interaction - David Olsher; 12. On Delaying the Answer: Question Sequences Extended after the Question - Rod Gardner.

Review

"The collection advances our knowledge of naturally-occurring L2 conversations considerably and is highly recommended for anyone interested in this area...it should certainly be recommended reading for any postgraduate student of L2 spoken interaction." -- Paul Seedhouse, BAAL News

Long Description

"This collection is the first to consistently adopt Conversation Analysis as an approach to second language interaction. By examining first and second language speakers' participation in a wide range of activities, it challenges the dominant view of 'nonnative speakers' as deficient communicators. Proposing instead to understand second language users' conversational participation as interactional achievement, the book makes a powerful case for 'ethnomethodological respecification' in second language research." Professor Gabriele Kasper, University of Hawai'iConversations involving speakers whose first language is not the language in which they are talking have become widespread in the globalized world. Migration, increased travel for business or pleasure, as well as communication through new technologies such as the internet make Second Language Conversations an increasingly common everyday event. In this book Conversation Analysis is used to explore natural, casual talk between speakers in a second language. The contributors shift emphasis away from controlled contexts such as the classroom towards more sociable environments in which people go about their daily routines. English, German, French, Japanese, Finnish and Danish are all analyzed as second languages within a variety of professional, educational and sociable situations. This collection of essays aims to present naturally occurring Second Language Conversations in order to show what speakers in these situations do; how they utilize first language conversational practices, and whether or not grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation help or hinder the construction of meaning. >

Review Quote

"The collection advances our knowledge of naturally-occurring L2 conversations considerably and is highly recommended for anyone interested in this area...it should certainly be recommended reading for any postgraduate student of L2 spoken interaction."

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