Classroom interactional research on task-based language teaching and learning has examined learners' selection of linguistic resources while they maintain a primary focus on meaning. This presentation outlines how Japanese university students of English present their interactional competence through deployment of direct reported speech (DRS) in producing arguments and opinions in L2 discussions. We build on this classroom research by examining how the grammar of the pedagogical materials influences L2 learner production of DRS. Basing our analysis on the research method of conversation analysis, we examined 145 hours of video-recorded small-group discussions among over 520 intermediate level Japanese university students. The students participated in extended discussions in which they had to achieve consensus on goal-oriented tasks. Worksheets for two discussion tasks included personal statements from hypothetical candidates for jobs and dating. Analysis disclosed how the hypothetical statements on the pedagogical materials influenced production and practice of DRS grammatical structures. Two standard formats were shown to be employed extensively by these learners when incorporating DRS in their stance-taking turns: (a) DRS + stance, and (b) stance + DRS + stance. The two formats outlined above were recurrently utilized to support the students’ positions. The results of this study show the extent to which L2 students in language learning discussion tasks are able to use DRS and reveal how students utilize pedagogical materials in participating in discussions that require exchanges of opinion. The findings will aid teachers in understanding what grammatical forms students are producing or not producing in task-based discussions.

Authors:
David Aline, Kanagawa University, Japan
Yuri Hosoda, Kanagawa University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
David Aline is Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities at Kanagawa University, Yokohama. His research interests include second language acquisition through conversation analysis.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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