The thesis examines a broad spectrum of practices and phenomena implicated
in the construction of turns-at-talk in (Japanese) novice-to-novice English
as a second language interaction. Two major themes explored in this thesis
are the moment-by-moment emergent nature of novice L2 turn construction and
the roles played by a variety of embodied displays in the unfolding
interaction. The initial analytic chapter (Ch. 4) examines the types of
turn constructions produced by these speakers and oriented to as complete
by next speakers in addition to several phenomena located in and around TCU
beginnings. Chapter 5 examines instances of backwards-oriented
self-repair, while Chapter 6 and 7 detail a range of practices involved in
the initiation, management, and resolution of forward-oriented self-repair.
Chapter 8 looks at how these novice L2 participants dealt with the
exigencies of turn completion.
Among the major findings of this thesis are several forms of evidence that
these novice second language participants are, in reality, extremely
sophisticated and experienced social interactants who bring with them to
this talk in a second language a host of previously acquired interactional
skills. Other findings include observations on the use of embodied displays
in the initiation, management, and resolution of self-repair and the use of
vowel-marking as a strategic resource within the activity of forward
repair. This thesis also presents key support for the claim that
inter-turn silences in talk by-and-with nonnative speakers should be
treated as interactionally motivated as they are in native speaker talk.
E-mail this message to a friend
