L2 ‘Second-order’ organization

Abstract

This paper illustrates how L2 novice speakers of Japanese co-construct a contingent conversation by themselves with no L1 speaker’s or instructor’s assistance. Using conversation analysis, the study examines turn-taking organization in the data. The L2 speakers employed question sequences (Question-Answer-Follow up) to manage turn allocation among themselves. The study analyses the turn transitions in a sequence when the questioner has selected the next speaker to answer but no answer is forthcoming or it is delayed. Multi-modal resources such as eye gaze and contingent face expressions in particular seem to play an important role in the selection of a next speaker. In L2 data examined, a third party self selects him/herself as the next speaker in place of the original responder. This second-order case (Stivers and Robinson 2006) is in effect because of the L2 speakers’ attentiveness towards progressivity of the conversation. I argue that this phenomenon evidences a specific context of ‘conversation-for-learning’.