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

Abstract

Analyses are presented of interactional excerpts containing three methods through which Japanese university students preparing for a group presentation in a required English class take an epistemic stance of uncertainty towards their own displayed knowledge of their second language (L2) English. These three methods consist of 1) producing a candidate item as uncertain, 2) casting doubt on something just said by self, and 3) overtly claiming lack of knowledge. Epistemic stance can be understood as consisting of different dimensions, with a stance of uncertainty related specifically to the dimension of epistemic access. Analyses are also presented of how other students respond or do not respond to such a stance. Through this kind of stance-taking and responses and non-responses, the students do being non-experts in their L2 without making relevant possible asymmetries in expertise. That is, by doing being non-experts among non-experts, the students construct an epistemically symmetrical, egalitarian relationship within their group.

Interactions in L2: Some Features of Japanese Learner Talk

“…Ellis (1991) portrayed Japanese speakers as generally orienting to a formal, indirect, inexplicit, and status-relevant style of speaking, deploying silence and backchanneling as interactional resources in ways that are at variance with norms of interaction in English. Other studies have focused on individual points, such as lower self-disclosure in casual talk with nonintimates (Iwata, 2010) or orientation to a nonexpert identity as an English user (Hauser, 2018). However, mundane conversation is suffused with a range of other, smaller-scale interactional phenomena that are used to manage interactions on a local basis, and these phenomena have been underrepresented in the literature.…”

Managing epistemic imbalances in peer interaction during mathematics lessons

“…Jakonen, 2014). Those few studies that exist have demonstrated, for example, how students manage knowledge gaps by requesting information or help (Jakonen and Morton, 2015) or by asking known-answer questions from co-participants (Rusk et al, 2017), how students express uncertainty towards their own displayed knowledge in order to maintain epistemic balance (Hauser, 2018). This study contributes to the small but growing body of research on epistemics in peer interaction within the classroom.…”