Repair sequences in ‘off-task’ conversations in an EFL university classroom in Japan: Japanese language resources and learning opportunities

ABSTRACT

In this article, I use conversation analysis (CA) to focus on how Japanese language resources are used in repair sequences that occur in ‘off-task’ English interactions in a lower-level EFL classroom at a Japanese university, considering how this may create opportunities for learning. While previous research has found that ‘off-task’ peer interactions in EFL classrooms will often be in the L1, I show how the participants in this study can display an orientation to speaking in English, even when ‘off-task’. However, L1 resources were more likely to be used when ‘off-task’ than when on-task. In ‘off-task’ talk, Japanese language resources were made use of in a number of ways: during other-initiated repair to clarify the meaning of an English word; as a placeholder in a word search; and to elicit help in forward-oriented repair sequences, among others. I describe how an orientation to speaking in English combined with some L1-use allowed for repair sequences that involved translation between the L1 and target language, and how ‘off-task’ talk may provide learning opportunities that occur less often in the on-task interactions in my data. I argue in the discussion that ‘off-task’ conversations may have a useful role to play in the EFL classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Off-task conversations
• repair
• conversation analysis
• EFL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

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Paul Stone

Paul Stone has been teaching and researching in Japan for 10 years, focussing particularly on university classes. His research interests include conversation analysis, multimodal interaction analysis, identity and ethnography.