Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 4. L2 talk as social accomplishment

  • and

Abstract

This position paper builds on ethnomethodological conversation analysis to make a number of interrelated, empirically derived claims about speaking a second language and learning to do it as a social endeavor. We will show that: (1) language is primarily action, that linguistic units are primarily designed and used for and learned as actions in situ; (2) language is occasioned and environmentally contingent, and speaking is turn-taking that presupposes an ability to monitor other people’s talk; and (3) language, learning and cognition are socially distributed, co-constructed, embodied and embedded in local situations. They are each other’s ongoing continuations or extensions, made visible by verbal and bodily behavior. They rely on other people’s actions in situ as language is co-constructed and language-as-action emerges.

Abstract

This position paper builds on ethnomethodological conversation analysis to make a number of interrelated, empirically derived claims about speaking a second language and learning to do it as a social endeavor. We will show that: (1) language is primarily action, that linguistic units are primarily designed and used for and learned as actions in situ; (2) language is occasioned and environmentally contingent, and speaking is turn-taking that presupposes an ability to monitor other people’s talk; and (3) language, learning and cognition are socially distributed, co-constructed, embodied and embedded in local situations. They are each other’s ongoing continuations or extensions, made visible by verbal and bodily behavior. They rely on other people’s actions in situ as language is co-constructed and language-as-action emerges.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Chapter 1. Sociolinguistic competence and the acquisition of speaking 1
  5. Chapter 2. Speaking, interactional competencies, and mediated action 27
  6. Chapter 3. Gesture and speaking a second language 49
  7. Chapter 4. L2 talk as social accomplishment 69
  8. Chapter 5. The acquisition of L2 speaking 105
  9. Chapter 6. Exploring the spoken learner English constructicon 127
  10. Chapter 7. Creating and using the space for speaking within the foreign language classroom 153
  11. Chapter 8. Code-switching in the Spanish heritage language classroom 175
  12. Chapter 9. The Mirroring Project 197
  13. Chapter 10. Speaking in a second language 225
  14. Index 241
Speaking in a Second Language
This chapter is in the book Speaking in a Second Language
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.17.04esk

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Chapter 1. Sociolinguistic competence and the acquisition of speaking 1
  5. Chapter 2. Speaking, interactional competencies, and mediated action 27
  6. Chapter 3. Gesture and speaking a second language 49
  7. Chapter 4. L2 talk as social accomplishment 69
  8. Chapter 5. The acquisition of L2 speaking 105
  9. Chapter 6. Exploring the spoken learner English constructicon 127
  10. Chapter 7. Creating and using the space for speaking within the foreign language classroom 153
  11. Chapter 8. Code-switching in the Spanish heritage language classroom 175
  12. Chapter 9. The Mirroring Project 197
  13. Chapter 10. Speaking in a second language 225
  14. Index 241
Downloaded on 13.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/aals.17.04esk/html
Scroll to top button