Beyond Repair: Conversation Analysis as an Approach to SLA

Abstract

As one of several approaches to SLA as social practice, Conversation Analysis (CA) has the capacity to examine in detail how opportunities for L2 learning arise in different interactional activities. Its particular strength, and one that distinguishes it from other social practice approaches, is its consistent focus on the orientations and relevancies that participants display to each other through their interactional conduct. CA thus affords a distinct perspective on L2 learning as object and process. It enables researchers to reconsider such established SLA topics as fluency, correction, or the benefits of tasks for L2 learning, but also offers an acquisitional perspective on interactional conduct whose potential for L2 learning has been largely unexplored.