A Conversation Analysis Approach to French L2 Learning

This book offers a critical examination of second language (L2) learning outside institutional contexts, with a focus on the way second language learners introduce, close, and manage conversational topics in everyday settings. König adopts a Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition (CA-SLA) approach in analyzing oral data from a longitudinal study of L2 learners of French, au pairs in Swiss families, over several years. With this approach the author presents insights into the ways in which L2 learners introduce and close conversational topics in ongoing conversations and how these strategies evolve over time, setting the stage for future research on this little documented process in second language acquisition. This volume contributes toward a greater understanding of L2 learning "in the wild," making this key reading for students and researchers in second language acquisition, applied linguistics, and French language learning and teaching.

Clelia König is a postdoctoral research assistant at the German University of Koblenz-Landau. She works at the Institute of German Language at the Campus in Landau and teaches several B.A. courses for teacher students in the domains of General Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics as well as Conversation Analysis and Second Language Acquisition. She obtained her PhD at the Swiss University of Neuchâtel and has published this volume on the basis of her doctoral thesis. Her new research focus resides in the analysis of German learning process by young children in Kindergarten. With the new data and analyses she is preparing her habilitation treatise for pursuing an academic career.

Introduction Chapter 1: Data, methodology and research questions Chapter 2: Topic analysis in first and second languages Chapter 3: L2 acquisition and interactional competence Chapter 4: Topic management in French L1 and L2 interactions Chapter 5: Topic introduction Chapter 6: Topic closure Chapter 7: Nature and development of L2 interactional competence Chapter 8: Conclusion(s) Appendix I Index