Designedly Incomplete Utterances: A Pedagogical Practice for Eliciting Knowledge Displays in Error Correction Sequences

Abstract

This article uses a conversation analytic framework to analyze a practice used by teachers in 1-on-1, second-language writing conferences when eliciting self-correction of students' written language errors. This type of turn, used to elicit a knowledge display from the student, is not a syntactic question or even a complete turn constructional unit. It is designed to be incomplete; hence the name designedly incomplete utterance (DIU). The teachers use DIUs made up of the students' own words to begin turns that they are prompting the students to complete. Several types of DIU are discussed, showing how their turn design is related to the action they are being used to do. DIUs are then compared to similar practices found in ordinary conversation (i.e., word searches and anticipatory completions), showing how DIUs are adaptations of these practices to accomplish specialized institutional tasks.