Constructing social identitites and discourse through repair activities

Abstract

Traditionally, repairs have been defined as the traces of metalinguistic activities present in oral exchanges that reveal that the speaker(s) are trying to solve language problems which might affect the normal flow of communication (Duranti 1977, Griggs 1997, Levelt 1983, van Lier 1988). However, while most of these studies have highlighted the importance of repairs as tools to gain, expand or reinforce knowledge about the target language, they have not reflected how social identities determine its nature and shape the learners’ discourse. We will examine conversational interactions between pairs of adult learners of Spanish as a second language engaged in a role-play activity, acted out for the class. Such activities require learners to determine who they will be, where they will be and who they will be talking to from the perspective of the role-play, but at the same time they must continue to deal with who they are, where they are and who their audience is in the real world. We use conversational analysis and interactional sociolinguistics to analyse their repairs in these two simultaneous conversational contexts.