This case study explores one Spanish L2 learner’s interactional competence (IC) during a short-term study abroad program that featured service-learning (SL). The goal of the study is to describe the learner’s IC in interactions in the SL context. Data for analysis derive primarily from dialogues… read more
Our objective is to discover if metadialogic discussion by participants and researchers increases their understanding of the dialogue. We videotaped a native Spanish speaker and a fifth-semester Spanish learner from the U.S. as they discussed a conversational prompt. Next, a facilitator guided the… read more
Based on previous research on second language learner oral proficiency (e.g. Omaggio Hadley 2001) and related teacher training (e.g. Liskin-Gasparro 2003), the Spanish Corpus Proficiency Level Training website offers an open, online training resource on Spanish learner proficiency levels for future… read more
This study examines how Spanish native speakers (NSs) and second language (L2) learners deal with changing frames in talk. Goffman’s (1974) ideas of frames and ‘keys’ are extended to NS-learner informal interviews to characterize the pragmatic resources that NS and learners use to change frames.… read more
Construction grammarians analyze grammar in terms of conventional pairings of form and meaning (Fillmore et al. 1988; Goldberg 1995, 2006) that are largely limited to the sentence (Lambrecht 1994, 2004). Recently, construction grammarians have moved beyond sentential boundaries to consider… read more
This study examines variation of pragmatic resources seen in native speaker (NS)learner dialogue as related to institutional and conversation frames. Following Tannen (1993) and Ensink (2003) who apply several of Goffman’s (1974) ideas of frames to discourse such as narratives and public speech,… read more
This study argues for expectations as a basis for L2 production/interpretation of speech acts and implicatures in talk. It examines the role of expectations in pragmatic expression/interpretation in NS-learner dialogue, and whether expectations can be used to approach L2 study. Two Spanish learners… read more
This study examines the co-construction of identities, and the pragmatic strategies used by two interlocutors in a U.S. Hispanic political debate, conducted in Spanish, to construct those identities and align with the viewers. The framework used for analysis is informed by the notion of political… read more