Deployment of I don’t know and wakannai in second language classroom peer discussions
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Yuri Hosoda
Yuri Hosoda is Professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Languages at Kanagawa University, Yokohama. Her research examines second language uses through a conversation analytic perspective in both English and Japanese. Her papers have appeared in
Pragmatics & Society ,Pragmatics ,Journal of Pragmatics ,Classroom Discourse ,Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict ,Applied Linguistics , andLinguistics and Education . Address for correspondence: Graduate School of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, 4-5 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, 220-0012, Japan. Email:yhosoda@kanagawa-u.ac.jp .
and
David Aline
David Aline is Professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Languages at Kanagawa University, Yokohama. His research employs a conversation analytic perspective to explicate interaction conducted in additional languages in educational and mundane settings. He has published in
Pragmatics & Society ,Pragmatics ,Journal of Pragmatics ,Classroom Discourse ,Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict , and theInternational Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching . Address for correspondence: Graduate School of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, 4-5 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, 220-0012, Japan. Email:alined01@kanagawa-u.ac.jp .
Abstract
This conversation analytic study explicates the differential actions of the English phrase I don’t know (IDK) and its equivalent in Japanese, wakannai, as deployed by Japanese learners of English during peer discussions for language learning. By examining natural classroom interaction, we explore second language (L2) speakers’ use of these tokens for various pragmatic actions. The data consist of 47 h of discussions in English language classes in three Japanese universities. The discussions were carried out in the target language, English, for the most part, but occasionally the participants used their common first language (L1), Japanese. All cases of IDK and wakannai examined here occurred in first positions during production of opinions or first assessments. The analysis revealed that within a single discussion session, the participants marshalled IDK and wakannai to perform differential actions. Overwhelmingly, in our data, IDK was deployed to manage their epistemic stance, while wakannai was produced to make a public assertion of their insufficient knowledge.
Funding source: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Award Identifier / Grant number: 18K00851
About the authors
Yuri Hosoda is Professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Languages at Kanagawa University, Yokohama. Her research examines second language uses through a conversation analytic perspective in both English and Japanese. Her papers have appeared in Pragmatics & Society, Pragmatics, Journal of Pragmatics, Classroom Discourse, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, Applied Linguistics, and Linguistics and Education. Address for correspondence: Graduate School of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, 4-5 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, 220-0012, Japan. Email: yhosoda@kanagawa-u.ac.jp.
David Aline is Professor in the Graduate School of Foreign Languages at Kanagawa University, Yokohama. His research employs a conversation analytic perspective to explicate interaction conducted in additional languages in educational and mundane settings. He has published in Pragmatics & Society, Pragmatics, Journal of Pragmatics, Classroom Discourse, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, and the International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. Address for correspondence: Graduate School of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, 4-5 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, 220-0012, Japan. Email: alined01@kanagawa-u.ac.jp.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Grant No. 18K00851. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, and to John Hellermann for his support of this project.
Appendix: Transcription conventions
| [ ] | overlapping talk |
| - | cut-off, self-interruption |
| = | latched utterances |
| (0.0) | timed pause (in seconds) |
| (.) | a short pause |
| co:lon | extension of the sound or syllable |
| . | fall in intonation (final) |
| , | continuing intonation (non-final) |
| ¿ | a rise stronger than a comma but weaker than a question mark |
| ? | rising intonation (final) |
| underline | emphasis |
| ° ° | quiet talk |
| > < | fast talk |
| $ $ | smiley voice |
| hh | audible aspirations |
| (hh) | laughter within a word |
| (( )) | comment by the transcriber, including nonverbal conduct |
| ( ) | problematic hearing that the transcriber is not certain about |
| “ ” | idiomatic translation of Japanese utterances |
| | | overlapping bodily movement |
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Full Length Articles
- Construction of a binary evaluative taxonomy within a story
- Deployment of I don’t know and wakannai in second language classroom peer discussions
- Discourse module in mind: a biolinguistical hypothesis of macro-structure
- Dialogical functions of metaphors in medical interactions
- Construction of risk in road safety advertising: a multimodal analysis of Vietnamese child helmet awareness advertisements
- The rhetorical structure of analytical writing: a developmental approach
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Full Length Articles
- Construction of a binary evaluative taxonomy within a story
- Deployment of I don’t know and wakannai in second language classroom peer discussions
- Discourse module in mind: a biolinguistical hypothesis of macro-structure
- Dialogical functions of metaphors in medical interactions
- Construction of risk in road safety advertising: a multimodal analysis of Vietnamese child helmet awareness advertisements
- The rhetorical structure of analytical writing: a developmental approach
