Learnables and Teachables in Second Language Talk: Advancing a Social Reconceptualization of Central SLA Tenets. Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

AbstractFollowing Firth & Wagner's (, ) call for a social reconceptualization of central tenets of second language acquisition (SLA) research, this special issue of The Modern Language Journal focuses on practices for teaching and learning a second language (L2) with special attention to the details of socio‐interactional contexts of teaching and learning behaviors/activities. Its goal is to unveil learning processes and practices as socially observable phenomena in situ and in vivo and to discuss pedagogical implications of the findings. As such, the issue focuses on some well‐established concepts from the SLA field, including noticing, attention, and corrective feedback, but aims to explore and reconceptualize them in terms of social displays of behavior and social practices as seen through the lens of conversation analysis. This Introduction sets the stage for the articles in the special issue by tracing SLA's interest in socio‐interactional aspects of learning before moving on to a brief discussion of the epistemology of CA. We then outline the ways in which the individual articles empirically contribute to a social understanding of learning and cognition in SLA, before summarizing the main points addressed in the special issue.