Establishing Recipiency in Pre-Beginning Position in the Second Language Classroom

Abstract

This article describes how students in the second language classroom claim incipient speakership and establish recipiency with a co-participant before the turn is properly initiated. The resources used by the incipient speaker include in-breaths and body movements. The article shows that when the teacher's turn is designed as not to pre-establish the participation roles “speaker” and “recipient” of the response turn, the next speaker orients to establishing visible recipiency as a relevant task during, or prior to, the turn beginning. In this way, the teacher's instruction, and the way it is designed and enacted, provides the students with specific interactional jobs that are not only relevant, but also crucial for the production of the student's turn.

Notes

¹The following universities and researchers are involved: The Danish University of Education (Karen Lund and Kirsten Lundgaard Kolstrup), Roskilde University Center (Michael Svendsen Pedersen, Karen Risager, and Louise Tranekjær), University of Southern Denmark (Johannes Wagner, Catherine E. Brouwer, Gitte Rasmussen Hougaard, and Kristian Mortensen). The project is financed by The Danish Research Council for the Humanities (Statens Humanistiske Forskningsråd).

²Poh's turn is grammatically incorrect (subject–verb–negation). The correct word order should be subject–negation–verb, and the turn should therefore be “Fordi hun ikke har råd” (‘Because she cannot afford it’). Following the incorrect word order, the teacher starts writing on the board and initiates a repair sequence.