This article reports on how, against a background of relatively stable patterns of second language negation, a Japanese‐speaking adult learning English made use of a negative formula, “I don't know,” and how, in and through interaction, analyzed it into its component parts and began using “don't” more productively. Making use of the micro‐analytic techniques of conversation analysis to analyze data collected over a seven‐month period, two relatively stable patterns of negation are described. This is followed by a description of how the learner used the formula and, over time, analyzed it. This often involved repetition and/or self‐repair. Changes in how “don't” was used included coming to use it with the verb “like,” as well as coming to use it with “you.”
The data analyzed in this paper come from audio-recorded interaction among first and second language speakers of English at a conversation club sponsored by an English language school. As the analysis shows, the interaction in the conversation club can be understood as a type of non-formal institutional interaction. The analysis focuses on the questions asked by the first language speakers, or conversation partners. In particular, it focuses on the questioning styles of serial-questioning and pivoting. In addition, the conversation partners tend to assume a discourse identity as primary participant within the participation framework, a discourse identity that they work to maintain and, when necessary, re-establish. As non-formal institutional interaction, it does not involve turn pre-allocation or restrictions on the type of turn that participants may take. It is, though, oriented toward the fulfilment of institutionally relevant goals.
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