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This article examines the interactive import of prosody from a perspective of participants' orientation to talk in interaction, taking advantage of data from institutional discourse to focus on the prosodic packaging of recurring turn sequences of the same discourse activity. The analysis focuses on the third slot of a ubiquitous three-part classroom discourse sequence, the IRF exchange (Sinclair & Coulthard 1975), a site in which teachers make repetitive feedback moves following student responses. Examination of more than 25 hours of classroom discourse and more than 300 third-turn teacher feedback types uncovered a systematic use of prosody for these teacher repetitions that coincides with a teacher's positive assessment of the student response. Further analysis shows that more complex prosodic packaging is used by teachers in their repetitive feedback turns to index other interactive functions.

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This study is part of a larger research program investigating conversational practices that are resources for language learning in classroom settings. Using methods from conversation analysis, this analysis describes how low-level adult learners' interactional competence in English develops through their interactional practices in a language classroom. The study isolates one context for a particular action in the language classroom: student dyads opening their teacherassigned tasks. The data come from interactions of six successful learners who participated in classes at the data collection site over a period of 18 to 27 months. The excerpts presented in this study show the same-student dyads incorporating language from the teacher and from one another over time into their discursive practices to manage the openings of their dyadic interactions. The results provide evidence for the ongoing discussion (cf. Brouwer & Wagner, 2004;Markee & Kasper, 2004) on the nature of language learning and the ability of methods of conversation analysis to address the issue of learning.THIS STUDY ADDRESSED THE ISSUE OF learning in second language classrooms from a conversation analytic perspective by exploring a recurring context in the language classroom over a period of 6 or more terms (18 months). By looking at interaction in a pancontextual discursive practice over time, the study aimed to reveal changes used by individuals in their interactive practices and in their abilities to participate in this context over time. This study followed calls from Hall (2004a) to use the methods of conversation analysis (CA) to inform sociocultural understandings of learning and from Kasper (2004) and Wagner (2004) for research working with conversation analytic methods to use longitudinal data to understand language learning as a change in participation over time. Research from various sociocultural perspectives has provided convincing examples of students working together to

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