Communicating in the real world--International students' use of L2 outside the classroom

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520619
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: GREER Timothy 神戸大学, 学内共同利用施設等, 教授 (10320540)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 会話分析 / Conversation analysis / 海外留学 / Study abroad / Interactional competence / Repair / Codeswitching

Outline of Final Research Achievements

With the aim of observing second language interaction in natural situations, this research projected collected video recordings of unscripted talk and transcribed them in careful detail according to the conversation analytic (CA) approach. The interaction was then carefully observed from sociolinguistic and pragmatic perspectives and various interactional practices were identified. For example, similar practices were observed in a comparative analysis of interaction between non-native speakers of Japanese having their hair cut in Japan and Japanese students of English taking part in a short term homestay program in the United States. In addition, the study proposes a micro-longitudinal approach to conversation analysis, tracking the development of interactional competences across spans of time. The video recordings enabled close observations of actual instances of talk rather than relying on the impressionistic reports of the participants.

Free Research Field

言語教育