An analysis of repair practices in L2 Spanish listening comprehension materials with implications for teaching interactional competence

ABSTRACT

Listening materials are commonly developed so students show their understanding of a specific oral discourse. Oral interactions provided in textbooks are resources in which different interactional practices are involved, repair practices being one of these. This article seeks to explore, first, the types of repair practices found in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) textbook listening interactions and, second, the relationship between repairs and other characteristics of the interactions to determine to what extent SFL listening practices are appropriate resources to show examples of repair work and to develop the students’ Interactional Competence. Following a Conversation Analysis perspective, 109 repairs in 504 SFL audiotaped listening materials from 18 textbooks are analysed. The results show that repairs are not a common practice in listening materials, other-initiated self-repairs being the most common type of repair work. A disparity is also observed in establishing repair through listening materials depending on the textbook. Some of them include self-repairs together with other interactional features, such as overlapped turns, articulated pauses or response tokens, while other textbooks rarely present any repair work. These findings improve our understanding of the degree of authenticity of listening materials, which might help students develop their interactional competence.

KEYWORDS:

• Listening materials
• Conversation Analysis
• interactional competence
• repair
• Spanish as a foreign language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Textbooks analysed

Alonso, M., and R. Prieto. 2011. Embarque 1. Libro del alumno. Madrid: Edelsa.

Alonso, M., and R. Prieto. 2011. Embarque 2. Libro del alumno. Madrid: Edelsa.

Alonso, M., and R. Prieto. 2014. Embarque 3. Libro del alumno. Madrid: Edelsa.

Alonso, M., and R. Prieto. 2014. Embarque 4. Libro del alumno. Madrid: Edelsa.

Castro, F., P. Díez, I. Rodero, and C. Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha 1. Libro del alumno. Madrid: SGEL.

Castro, F., I. Rodero, and C. Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha 2. Libro del alumno. Madrid: SGEL.

Castro, F., I. Rodero, and C. Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha 3. Libro del alumno. Madrid: SGEL.

Castro, F., I. Rodero, and C. Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha 4. Libro del alumno. Madrid: SGEL.

Corpas, J., E. García, and A. Garmendia. 2013. Aula 1. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Corpas, J., A. Garmendia, and C. Soriano. 2013. Aula 2. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Corpas, J., A. Garmendia, and C. Soriano. 2013. Aula 3. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Corpas, J., A. Garmendia, and C. Soriano. 2014. Aula 4. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Corpas, J., A. Garmendia, N. Sánchez-Quintana, and C. Soriano. 2014. Aula 5. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Corpas, J., A. Garmendia, N. Sánchez-Quintana, and C. Soriano. 2014. Aula 6. Curso de español. Nueva edición. Barcelona: Difusión.

Gutiérrez, E., I. Ruiz, and A. B. García. 2010. En acción 4. Curso de español con enfoque orientado a la acción. Madrid: EnclaveELE.

Verdía, E., M. González, F. Martín, I. Molina, and C. Rodrigo. 2010. En acción 1. Curso de español con enfoque orientado a la acción. Madrid: EnclaveELE.

Verdía, E., J. Fruns, F. Martín, M. Ortín, and C. Rodrigo. 2010. En acción 2. Curso de español con enfoque orientado a la acción. Madrid: EnclaveELE.

Verdía, E., M. Fontecha, J. Fruns, F. Martín, and V. Vaquero. 2010. En acción 3. Curso de español con enfoque orientado a la acción. Madrid: EnclaveELE.

Notes

1. However, some authors have considered this idea as a myth (Zyzik and Polio 2017).

2. It should be noted that in the late 80’s until the mid-90s, some materials were published with the aim to take conversation to the centre of the stage. Textbooks as Conversation (Nolasco and Arthur 1987), Conversation and dialogues in action (Dörnyei and Thurrell 1992), Exploring Spoken English (Carter and McCarthy 1997) or Beyond talk (Barraja-Rohan and Pritchard 1997) treat interactional aspects such as backchanneling, how to formulate preferred and dispreferred questions, or how to project a turn for the recipient to complete.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jaume Batlle

Dr. Jaume Batlle is assistant teacher at the University of Barcelona, Spain. His earlier work has mainly focused on the study of the interactions in Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom and the development of reflexive practice in teachers’ professional development.

Maria del Mar Suárez

Dr. Maria del Mar Suárez is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Linguistics and Literature Education in the Faculty of Education of the University of Barcelona, Spain. Her research has examined the role of aptitude in young learners. She is also interested in the role of individual differences.