Interaction and Second Language Learning: Two Adolescent French Immersion Students Working Together

Abstract

This article provides support for a theoretical orientation toward viewing dialogue as both a means of communication and a cognitive tool. Data to support this position come from an analysis of the language-related episodes isolated in the dialogue of two grade 8 French immersion students as they carry out ajigsaw task. During the task, the students work out a story line and write it out. As they do so, they encounter linguistic problems. To solve them, the students use their first language (Ll) and second language (L2) in order to communicate to each other and as tools to aid their L2 learning. The language-related episodes discussed provide evidence of language use as both an enactment of mental processes and as an occasion for L2 learning. Variation in how other pairs of students in the class perform the task supports existing evidence that the same task does not provide similar occasions for L2 learning to all student dyads. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVEWe take the position in this article that language use is both communication and cognitive activity. Language is simultaneously a means of communication and a tool for thinking. Dialogue provides both the occasion for language learning and the evidence for it. Language is both process and product.When language use is considered as communication, the concepts of input, comprehensible input, and comprehensible output are appropriate metaphors because they conjure up images of messages. These messages are transmitted as output from one source and received as input elsewhere. When there are difficulties in encoding or decoding these messages, language users modify and restructure their interaction to achieve message comprehensibility. "As they negotiate, Journal, 82, iii, (1998) 01998 The Moden Language Journal 0026-7902/98/320-337 $1.50/0 The Modern Language

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Improving Second Language Speaking Proficiency via Interactional Feedback

“…Interactionists have sought empirical evidence to determine the impact of interaction on comprehension (Loschky, 1994), second language development (Mackey, 1999), and production (Gass & Varonis, 1994;Swain & Lapkin, 1998). The research on feedback reveals that language teachers use a variety of strategies to correct students' linguistic errors (Chaudron, 1977;Lyster & Ranta, 1997;Seedhouse, 1997) and the results from systematic empirical studies investigating the type, frequency and effectiveness of different feedback strategies (Doughty & Varela, 1998;Lyster, 1998aLyster, , 1998b; Seedhouse, 1997) reveal two phenomena.…”

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