Other-Repetition as a Resource for Participation in the Activity of Playing a Video Game

• Published in: The Modern language journal (Boulder, Colo.) Vol. 93; no. 2; pp. 153 - 169
• Main Authors: MARSH, ARJA PIIRAINEN, TAINIO, LIISA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.07.2009; Wiley-Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescents; Avatars; Communicative Competence (Languages); Computer & video games; Conversation Analysis; Discourse Analysis; English as a Second Language; English as a Second Language Learning; Finnish; Foreign language learning; Games; Interaction; Interpersonal Behavior; Interpersonal Communication; Language; Language Processing; Language Use; Linguistics; Narratives; Nonnative languages; Play languages; Playing; Repetition; Second Language Learning; Social interaction; Video Games; Vocabulary Development
• ISSN: 0026-7902; 1540-4781
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00853.x

This article offers an empirically based contribution to the growing body of studies using Conversation Analysis (CA) as a tool for analyzing second/foreign language learning in and through interaction. Building on a sociointeractional view of learning as grounded in the structures of participation in social activities, we apply CA methods to examine the affordances offered by interaction during the activity of playing a video game for additional language learning. We focus on one type of interactional practice, lexical and prosodic repetition, as a recurring resource through which players attend to the game and collaboratively build their understanding and experience of game events. We argue that other-repetition offers participants a resource for not only interpreting the game but also for engaging with the second language, analyzing it, and putting it to use in ways that enable players to display and develop their linguistic and interactional competence.