L2 vocabulary development through conversation: A conversation analysis

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2004
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Jung, Kyungran
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Brown, James D.
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Through the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA), this study examines conversational interactions and L2 vocabulary development through conversations between conversation partners and L2 learners in one English language teaching institution. L2 learners often face problems in producing a target lexical item during conversations and seek assistance from their conversational partners who are mostly native speakers and fluent target language speakers. So, how do L2 learners talk and learn L2 vocabulary while having a conversation? Can we trace L2 learner’s vocabulary development over time, and how can we know that the learner actually learned the vocabulary through the conversation? Twelve hours of conversation involving one focal participant during a six-week term and two more conversations after three months were audio-recorded and transcribed. The analysis focuses on the instances of the L2 learners’ repair initiation and their conversation partners’ repair completion when facing a vocabulary production problem. The L2 learners used three different resources to initiate repair while searching for a word and the conversation partners provided the target word by orienting to the turn prior to the trouble source turn or the context as well as their role as a language expert or language teacher. In order to talk and learn, L2 learners repeated the target word or incorporated it into their utterances. In terms of vocabulary development over time, one focal participant’s conversations were traced and three target lexical items in a previous conversation were found to be used in a later conversation without any hesitation or trouble.
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40 pages
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University of Hawai'I Second Langauge Studies Paper 23(1)
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