<p>ALAA Conference December
2016</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Learning to produce expanded responses across
time in English as an additional language </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anne-Marie Barraja-Rohan</p>
<p>Monash University</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This paper responds to the need of exploring
longitudinal interactions in the wild using conversation analysis to increase
our understanding of L2 interactional competence. It examines five interactions
involving two adult Japanese exchange students in an Australian university. Akiko
and Meg were each videoed using English as L2 outside of class in three dyadic
and one triadic interactions with two Australian native speakers of English over
seven months. Akiko and Meg respectively interacted with one of L1 speaker on a
regular basis and met a newcomer in the last triadic interaction. </p>
<p>This study documents changes in both Akiko
and Meg’s L2 interactional competence by exploring how (1) Akiko gradually
produced expanded responses to self-presentational questions and (2) Meg
manoeuvred the turn-taking system in responding to a troublesome
presentation-eliciting question, which Akiko also experienced. </p>
<p>Self-presentational questions occur in
first encounters and usually generate a sequence whereby the answerer produces
an expanded response (Svennevig, 1999). The aim of these questions is to find
common ground to engage in topical talk and usually conversationalists reciprocate
these questions to get to know each other as well as self-disclose. In her
first interaction with John, Akiko mostly remained in the listener role
generally providing short turns. This meant that when answering
self-presentational questions, she did not naturally expand and John engaged in
active co-construction to achieve a more comprehensive response. This pattern
still occurred two months later when she interacted with John for the second
time. Five months later, self-presentational questions re-emerged when Akiko
interacted with John and a newcomer. After clarifying a misunderstanding, Akiko
produced an expanded response with post expansion without active
co-construction. In both cases – Akiko and Meg – there is evidence that
learning, although different for each focal participant, occurred at a subtle
interactional level (Nguyen, 2011).
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>References:</p>
<p>Nguyen, H. T. (2011). A longitudinal microanalysis of
a second language learner's participation. In G. Pallotti & J. Wagner
(Eds.), <i>L2 Learning as Social Practice Conversation-Analytic Perspectives</i>
(pp. 17-44). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, National Foreign Language
Resource Center.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Svennevig, J. (1999). <i>Getting Acquainted in
Conversation</i>. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p
