Positioning the Expert: Word Searches, Expertise, and Learning Opportunities in Peer Interaction

Abstract

The goal of this article is to further our understanding of how learning opportunities are created in interactions. Based on a conversation analysis of peer interactions of foreign language learners, we investigate how the negotiation of expert positions among these learners affects this process. The focus of the analysis is on the relationship between the conversation analytic notion of “doing‐being‐an‐expert” and learning in the context of word searches. We challenge the fixed notions of expert and novice and highlight the roles of interpersonal context, tools, and positioning in the negotiation of expertise. Drawing on the socio‐interactionist notion of situating learning in interaction, we argue that there is a link between the negotiation of expert positions and opportunities for learning.

‘We're Learning a Lot of New Words’: Encountering New L2 Vocabulary Outside of Class

“…The teaching is undertaken by Polly (gender correction) and Lena (meta‐comment on phonemics, blød d ), and noticing is done by Lena ( et lommetørklæde ) and Tina ( ah okay det er et svær ord ). In one and the same interaction, then, one co‐participant, Lena, is assigned status as both expert and novice, which shows that these categories are a fluid matter of behavior in situ and not definable a priori (Reichert & Liebscher, ). The fact that Polly is a Danish–German bilingual further attests to this.…”

Being a Non-expert in L2 English: Constructing Egalitarianism in Group Preparation Work

“…For students to interact in their L1 when preparing for an L2 presentation is not unusual, as shown in Kunitz (2013Kunitz ( , 2015, Kunitz and Marian (2017), and Reichert and Liebscher (2012). In the transcripts, the talk is presented using a three-tier system, with the original in the first line, based on standard conversation-analytic conventions (Jefferson, 2004), a e-ISSN: http://www.efdergi.hacettepe.edu.tr/ morpheme-by-morpheme gloss in the second, with symbols based mostly on Nguyen and Kasper (2009) and listed in the appendix, and an idiomatic translation in the third.…”

“…Melander (2012), for example, shows how students in a Swedish primary school orient to the L2 expertise of one student teaching others how to count to twenty in Japanese, which is not her first language, as well as how others can challenge this expertise. Similarly, Reichert and Liebscher (2012) show how university students learning German may position themselves as relative L2 experts, at least with regard to certain vocabulary items, during group preparation work, and how such positioning can be contested. A common finding of Hosoda (2006), Kotani (2017), Kurhila (2004), Kasper (2004), Melander (2012), and Reichert and Liebscher (2012) is that orientation to one participant's language expertise tends to be very brief as participants orient to other aspects of their identity as relevant, even though status as language experts and non-experts, at least when there are both L1 and L2 using participants, may be omnirelevant (Kasper, 2004).…”

Murtumakohdat S2-oppijoiden improvisaatioharjoituksissa

“…Sanahakujen aloittamat sekvenssit lähtivät siis aina liikkeelle opiskelijan motivoidusta tarpeesta edetä vuorovaikutuksessa, ja niistä näkyy myös opiskelijan turvautuminen heille tutumpaan kieleen: joko äidinkieleensä romaniaan tai englantiin, joita opiskelijat olettavat opettajien osaavan. Opettajan puuttuessa vuorovaikutustilanteesta opiskelijat neuvottelevat sanahakujen ratkaisusta enemmän (Reichert & Liebscher 2012). Improvisaatioharjoitusten murtumakohtia ja niiden ylittämisiä olisikin hedelmällistä tutkia myös sellaisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa, joita opettaja ei ole seuraamassa tai kokeilla harjoituksia, joissa opiskelijoilla on murtumakohdissa lupa hyödyntää vain toistensa asiantuntijuutta.…”