On the development of interactional competence in L2 French: Changes over time in responsive turn beginnings in peer interactions

Abstract

This paper contributes to the field of the development of L2 Interactional Competence (L2 IC) as researched from a Conversation Analysis perspective. The study investigates L2 speakers in dyadic peer interactions in a foreign language classroom, zooming in on one learner's development of linguistic resources and interactional practices for beginning a responsive turn at talk. The analysis is based on a data set of 15 videorecorded peer interactions spread across four years. The results show that early stages of development are characterised by broken starts and a heavy reliance on sequential or linguistic affordances. Later, the focal learner starts using routinized expressions to deal with turn beginnings in increasingly less predictable sequential environments. Over time, they develop more flexibility and mobilize a greater variety of resources in managing uptake and projections in their responsive turns, in sequential environments that provide progressively fewer affordances on a sequential and/or linguistic level.