ACTION OR REACTION, LEARNING OR DISPLAY: INTERACTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND USAGE-BASED DATA

Year 2013, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, - , 01.03.2013

Thorsten Huth

Abstract

This paper investigates how instances of language use can serve as analytic anchors for insight into interactional development over time. I present a usage-based, longitudinal study of multi-turn sequences underlying telephone openings in order to specify if and to whom language learning may be relevantly ascribed. Two successive analyses of the same data segment are conducted, once in terms of distributed cognition and a second time in terms of individual cognition. Both analyses produce different results. Ultimately, this paper specifies opportunities and constraints in usage-based studies focusing on interactional development over time in second language learners. The results call for more cross-disciplinary research that encompasses both the social and the cognitive.

Keywords

Conversation Analysis; language learning; distributed cognition; individual cognition; usage-based data

ACTION OR REACTION, LEARNING OR DISPLAY: INTERACTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND USAGE-BASED DATA

Abstract

Bu çalışma dil kullanımı örneklerinin zamanla olan etkileşimsel gelişimin içyüzünü anlamak için analitik bağlantılar olarak nasıl işe yarayacağını incelemektedir. Dil öğreniminin uygun bir şekilde atfedilip edilemeyeceğini ve kime edilebileceğini belirlemek için telefon görüşmelerinin başlangıçlarının temelinde olan çok dönüşlü dizilişlerin kullanım temelli, uzun vadeli bir çalışmasını sunmaktayım. Birincisi dağıtık biliş açısından ikincisi de bireysel biliş açısından olmak üzere aynı veri kesitinin peş peşe iki çözümlemesi yapılmıştır. Her iki çözümleme de farklı sonuçlar ortaya çıkarmıştır. Sonuç olarak, bu çalışma ikinci dil öğrencilerindeki zamanla olan etkileşimsel gelişime odaklanarak kullanım temelli çalışmaların sağladığı fırsatları ve onların sınırlılıklarını belirtmektedir. Sonuçlar sosyal ve bilişsel unsurları kaynaştıran daha fazla disiplinlerarası araştırmayı teşvik etmektedir.

Keywords

Konuşma Çözümlemesi; dil öğrenimi; dağıtık biliş; bireysel biliş; kullanım temelli veri

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•                                                                                                                 1 Another issue I cannot pursue further is the conceptualization of usage vs. learning as separate or the same, as in fact, in usage-based linguistics (UBL), language use and language learning are viewed as virtually indistinguishable. If language usage is the driving mechanism for progressive neuro-cognitive entrenchment of particular L2 structures over time, including interactional structures on the sequential level, then language use and language learning are indeed to be viewed as two delineable aspects of the same process, i.e., use and learning can be viewed as two sides of the same coin (Eskildsen, 2011). This duality might be acknowledged more frequently in the field at large.
•                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2 Open role play/conversation task instructions for the respective interactants were phrased as follows. CALLER: You are yourself, today is the current date. You are calling your partner because you misplaced/lost your book on German idiomatic expressions. In order to complete your homework, you request to borrow the book from your partner. Relate all the circumstances to your real life situation. While you need to accomplish your conversational goal, you are free to talk about anything you wish in addition. You need to talk about 7-10 minutes. RECIPIENT: You are yourself, today is the current date. You will receive a telephone call from your partner. It is entirely up to you how you respond. Circumstances permitting, give your partner a compliment. You need to talk for about 7-10 minutes. 3 As Koschmann (2011, p. 435) quotes Garfinkel (1952, p. 367): “The big question is not whether actors understand each other or not. The fact is they do understand each other, that they will understand each other, but the catch is that they will understand each other regardless of how they would be understood.”
• In other words, and rephrased for the purposes of this study, this means that whatever first speaker initiates, transferred from L1 or learned from exposure to, or from pedagogical materials about, the L2, and whatever second speaker produces in response when meeting first speakers’ first actions with a given ‘next’, transferred from L1 or learned from exposure to, or from pedagogical materials about, the L2, does not always produce outcomes that are intended by either or both interactants. In talk-in-interaction, mutual ‘understanding’ is not guaranteed.