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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 27:2 (2017) ► pp.235–256

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Avoiding initiation of repair in L2 conversations-for-learning

 | University of Electro-Communications | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 13 July 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.2.03hau
Abstract
Using audio-recorded data from second language (L2) English conversations-for-learning between an L2 user of English and a first language (L1) user of English (the researcher), this study analyzes cases in which the L1 user avoids initiation of repair. In each case, the L2 user appears to have misunderstood something said by the L1 user. Instead of initiating repair in next turn on the L2 user’s talk, or in third position on his own talk, the L1 user goes along, at least briefly, with the direction set by the L2 user. Often, the L1 user, sooner or later, returns to the misunderstood talk. Avoidance of repair initiation is one way in which the L1 user contributes to the construction of the L2 user as interactionally competent to participate in conversations-for-learning.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Avoiding initiation of repair
  • 3.Interactional competence as locally constructed
  • 4.Data and method
  • 5.Initiation of repair in next turn and third position
  • 6.Instances of avoiding initiation of repair
  • 7.Discussion – intersubjectivity and construction of interactional competence
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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