While several lines of SLA research have underlined the usage-based nature of second language (L2) acquisition (e.g. Ellis & Larsen-Freeman 2006), we see increasing arguments foregrounding the idea that use is primarily interactional in nature: “Language acquisition emerges through interaction with other human beings within a social context.” (de Bot, Lowie, & Verspoor, 2007, p. 11; my emphasis). Now, if language emerges through interactional language use, then it sits out there in the midst of the complex multimodal ecology that makes up social interaction: language, gaze, gesture, posture… In this presentation, I set out to demonstrate what can be gained if we bring to bear a multimodal perspective on the study of learner’s L2 use and development over time.

In line with recent calls for an interactional usage-based SLA (Pekarek Doehler & Eskildsen 2022) that combines usage-based linguistics and multimodal conversation analysis, I present a set of longitudinal studies that we are conducting at the University of Neuchâtel on two facets of L2 interactional competence: a) the development of practices for social interaction, such as turn-taking, disagreeing, soliciting help; b) the development of an L2 grammar-for-interaction (Pekarek Doehler 2018), i.e., linguistic resources used to coordinate social interaction, such as interaction-organizational markers. Both types of studies evidence how a multimodal analysis allows us to differentiate between various functional uses of a given practice or linguistic resource, and thereby contributes to a better understanding of the longitudinal development of these practices and resources, and, ultimately, of SLA as it can be observed in natural language use in interaction. I conclude with perspectives for future research.

References

Ellis, N. C., & Larsen–Freeman, D. (2006). Language emergence: Implications for applied linguistics: Introduction to the special issue. Applied Linguistics 27, 558–589.

de Bot, K., Lowie, W., & Verspoor, M. (2007). A dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10, 7–21.

Pekarek Doehler, S. (2018). Elaborations on L2 interactional competence: the development of L2 grammar-for-interaction. Classroom Discourse 9, 3–24.

Pekarek Doehler, Simona & Eskildsen, Søren (2022): Emergent L2 grammars in and for social interaction. Introduciton to the Special Issue. The Modern Language Journal 106/S1, 3-22.

Simona Pekarek Doehler

About the Higher seminar in Research on Bilingualism