SPOKEN DISCOURSE AND SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Document Type

Contribution to a Book

Publication Title

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Discourse

DOI

10.4324/9781003177579-19

First Page

215

Last Page

228

Abstract

Spoken discourse is the primordial means by which humans engage in social life and it has been studied from an array of approaches with their own ontological and epistemological orientations to language and communication. The present chapter surveys two primary strands of research on spoken discourse involving second language speakers: (1) studies that approach discourse as a means of revealing second language speakers’ competences and their developmental trajectories, and (2) those that approach discourse as a site for second language learning. The views of competences have gone through diversification, from a focus on discourse competence for creating cohesive monologic text to social constructional views of interactional competence. Investigations of conditions for learning also vary, from the cognitive-interactionist approach to usage-based approaches, and approaches drawn from different disciplines such as conversation analysis, sociocultural theory, language socialization research, and poststructuralist approaches. The chapter also introduces selected methodological and analytical approaches to second language spoken discourse, including experimental and quasi-experimental methodologies, microanalytic analyses of spontaneous talk-in-interaction, and ethnographic studies. Then, it concludes with implications for teaching and oral assessment and suggestions for future research that takes the plurilingual perspective to collaboratively study multicompetences of second language speakers in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic situations.

Department

World Languages and Literatures

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