Delayed next turn repair initiation in native/non-native speaker English conversation

Abstract

Prior research on repair in everyday conversation has shown that efforts directed at problems in hearing or understanding by someone other than the speaker of the trouble-source utterance are initiated in one main sequential environment: next turn relative to the trouble-source utterance (Schegloff et al. 1977). Here I examine a form of other-initiated repair which is delayed within next turn position, a form which is produced by non-native speakers of English (NNs) whose native language is Mandarin. Using the framework of conversation analysis (CA), I show that in native/non-native conversation (N-NN), other-initiated repair is not always done as 'early' as possible or what is 'possible' is markedly different. Nonetheless, the instances reported herein indirectly support the claim that the primary site of other-initiated repair is in the next turn relative to the trouble-source talk (Schegloff et al. 1977). In creating and recreating a sense of what is socially shared between them, native and non-native speakers in engagement with one another may orient to a greater potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding and work towards efforts, as displayed in the 'oral practice' (Hall 1993) of delayed NTRI, which aim at averting, avoiding, or correcting miscommunication and misunderstanding in the talk. CA may provide a sound foundation for the study of interaction in SLA, because it is based on those features of the context which are relevant for the participants.

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