Embodiment, Semantics and Social Action: The Case of Object-Transfer in L2 Classroom Interaction

Abstract

Using conversation analysis and usage-based linguistics, I focus on a beginning L2 user in an ESL classroom and trace his use of a “family of expressions” which, from the perspective of linguistic theory, are instantiations of either the ditransitive dative construction (e.g., “he told me the story”) or a prepositional dative construction (e.g., “he told the story to me”). The semantics of both constructions denotes transfer of an object, physically or metaphorically, from one agent to another. Therefore, I investigate them as one type of object-transfer construction. The instances of the construction are found predominantly in instruction sequences, and I show how the L2 user co-employs talk and recycled embodied work that elaborates the deictic references of the talk and the relation of agent-object-recipient roles among them. Through my analyses, I will showcase the embodied nature of linguistic categorization (Langacker, 1987) but take the argument further and suggest that the semiotic resource known as “language” is a residual of embodied social sense-making practices (aus der Wieschen and Eskildsen, 2019). The study draws on the MAELC database at Portland State University, a longitudinal audio-visual corpus of American English L2 classroom interaction.

Accumulating Semiotic Resources for Social Actions: A Case Study of L2 Icelandic in the Wild

“…Recently, research is showing that L2 construction learning moves from 'a few to more' rather than 'one to many,' so the developmental trajectory is best thought of as going from recurring exemplars toward a repertoire of interrelated constructions from which more schematic cognitive routines emerge (Eskildsen, 2015;Horbowicz & Nordanger, 2021;Lesonen et al, 2018). In some cases, L2 learners seem to shortcut the developmental route and operate on productive principles early on, perhaps as a result of available cognitive routines in the first language (Eskildsen, 2015(Eskildsen, , 2021Lesonen et al, 2020;Roehr-Brackin, 2014; on transfer, see, e.g., Ellis & Cadierno, 2009;MacWhinney, 2005). The notion of maximal schematicity as ultimate attainment, however, is being questioned for L2 learning, and evidence is accumulating that advocates a focus on recurring exemplars and semiproductive utterance schemas throughout L2 development (Eskildsen, 2017(Eskildsen, , 2020bHorbowicz & Nordanger, 2021).…”

Dynaaminen käyttöpohjainen lähestymistapa kielenoppimisen tutkimukseen

“…Alkeistason s2-oppijan leksikaalisesti spesifi konstruktion kehitys. Toisen kielen oppimisessa jäljittely ja toistaminen ovat siis keskeisiä skeemojen muodostuksen kannalta, mutta näyttää siltä, että (aikuisilla) toisen kielen oppijoilla skeema ei välttämättä lähde kehkeytymään vain yhden malli-ilmauksen perusteella, vaan useat osittain toistuvat ja osittain produktiiviset mallit voivat toimia oppimisen lähtökohtana (Eskildsen 2021). Vaihtelevien ilmausten käyttö oppimisen alkuvaiheessa viittaa myös siihen, että skeemat voivat muodostua hyvinkin nopeasti.…”