Learners Practicing and Playing with the Foreign Language

Abstract

This chapter presents and analyzes the use of private speech and language play in peer interactions that took place during the study. Private speech is understood as language use that is linked to the social interactions in the environment. Classroom examples suggest that the ecology of the investigated environment allows learners to use private speech to stay engaged in more overt classroom interactions despite not being directly addressed or involved in them. Further, this chapter goes into depth on language play. It suggests that there are currently two perspectives on language play in second language acquisition literature: First, the Vygotskyan-led notion that language play has an intrapersonal function, and second, the Bakhtinian-led idea that language play possesses an interpersonal function. Concrete examples, ranging from language rehearsal to creating fictions, explore both of these viewpoints. In addition, this chapter suggests that the investigated setting affords learners individual and spatial freedom to counterbalance conservative centripetal forces with more innovative centrifugal forces through playful language use in peer interactions. Finally, other examples of language play in the form of bizarre voices and fake accents additionally demonstrate how learners use the target language to create or maintain a foreign language identity.