Conversation analytic studies on L2 interactional competence have shed much light on L2 learners' increased diversification of methods to accomplish actions over time (e.g., Pekarek Doehler & Balaman, 2021; Eskildsen, 2021). This body of research also points to the intertwined relationship between L2 interactional competence development and changes in social relations. Little is still known, however, about how L2 linguistic repertoires develop in interactions that take place through smartphone text-based applications, such as WhatsApp. This study addresses this gap by exploring the interactional history of seven adult intermediate-level L2 English learners and an experienced teacher interacting with each other on a WhatsApp group for nine months. For this paper, the focus is on how one specific action, i.e., requests about class-related materials, is accomplished by the same learner at four different points in time spread over the first 5 months of interaction. The analysis follows a microanalytic approach to digital interaction (Meredith et al. 2021) informed by recent developments within longitudinal conversation analysis (Deppermann and Pekarek Doehler 2021).
This paper does three things. First, I ask how the focal learner designs the posts (messages) through which each request sequence is implemented. Second, I concentrate on how each request is treated by the teacher. In doing so, the underlying deontic properties (i.e., claimed and negotiated rights to direct the course of actions) of participants' conduct are also analyzed. Third, I consider these requests from a longitudinal perspective and provide an account of the observable changes in how they are designed and responded to over time.
The analyses unpack the array of semiotic resources that the focal learner employs to make similar requests over time. These resources include lexico-syntactic constructions and non-linguistic ones afforded by the medium itself, like emojis and punctuation. Comparison of the cases suggests that the differences in how requests are formatted at different points in time not only reflect an increased ability to use "recurrent and sedimented ways of accomplishing specific social actions" (Couper-Kuhlen 2014: 624) in English but also participants' changing deontic entitlements. For example, while the first request, produced a few days after the WhatsApp group was created, is formulated as a modal declarative you can and includes the use of the word please and affective emojis, the last one is designed as a modal interrogative can you and does not contain politeness or affective markers, but rather prefaces and accounts. Likewise, the responses differ in their deontic treatment of the action they are responding to. While the first two responses (to the first two requests) contain overt validation and upgrading of student's entitlement to make the requests, the responses to the later requests are straightforwardly oriented to compliance with the requested action.
The findings contribute to ongoing CA research on L2 interactional competence by revealing L2 learners' methods to engage in social interaction in less explored interactional formats and digital media that run parallel to classroom-based instruction. They provide further evidence that becoming a more competent L2 speaker is inevitably linked with becoming a more entitled member of a given community.
References:
Couper-Kuhlen, E. (2014). What does grammar tell us about action? Pragmatics, 24(3), 623-647. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.24.3.08cou
Deppermann, A., & Pekarek Doehler, S. (2021). Longitudinal conversation analysis-Introduction to the special issue. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 54(2), 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2021.1899707
Eskildsen, S. (2021). Embodiment, learning and social action: The case of requesting in L2 emergence [panel contribution]. 17th International Pragmatics Conference. Winterthur, Switzerland.
Meredith, J., Giles, D., & Stommel, W. (2021). Analysing Digital Interaction. Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology.
Pekarek Doehler, S., & Balaman, U. (2021). The Routinization of Grammar as a Social Action Format: A Longitudinal Study of Video-Mediated Interactions. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 54(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2021.1899710
