This study examines head nods produced as embodied and silent answers to polar questions before a transition relevance place has been reached. It discusses the notion of "response" and the ways in which the literature conceptualizes head nods. The analysis of video recordings of ordinary and institutional multiparty interactions shows…

The paper is focused on the study of the interconnection of context and evaluative utterances in French. The assessment of different aspects of the world is viewed as a considerable part of human cognitive activities. Considering this, in the paper evaluative utterances are analysed in relation to logical, semantic, pragmatic and communicative…

When deciding what constitutes students' "on task" or "off task" mathematical communication, teachers and researchers are also making judgements about what is, and what is not, mathematics. In this paper, we question our ability to separate the mathematical from the nonmathematical. We explore intersecting storylines in Grade…

This qualitative study is an analysis of the interactional environment of opinion exchange, based on a corpus of seven informal conversations between native speakers of French recorded in 2010. While previous research has highlighted a predilection for diverging views in French conversation, the data here reveal considerable mitigation in the…

While all mathematics is mediated by language, the role of language is especially complex in bi- and multilingual mathematics classrooms, and more so in bilingual education programs in which the explicit goals of both language and mathematics learning intersect. We explore bilingual French immersion students' linguistic and mathematical…

In socio- and applied linguistic research, age tends to be accounted for as fixed, biographical information, and individuals in later life have rarely been considered more than marginally. In this paper, I attempt to address this oversight by presenting data from multilingual subjects over the age of 65 as they take part in a language and literacy…

This article presents a descriptive and Co-Constructive Approach to feedback related to performance in the interpersonal mode of communication on the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA). The goal of this research study was to describe the discursive features of effective IPA feedback. To this end, critical discourse analysis of a feedback…

This paper investigates the use of multilingual resources by plurilingual participants in two English language classrooms in Luxembourg. Using Conversation Analysis and drawing on transcriptions of video-recordings, we present three examples of student use of multilingual resources and their respective teacher next turn management (through…

Repetition is used for a range of functions in conversation. In this study, we examined all the repetitions used in spontaneous conversations by 41 French adult-child dyads, with children aged 2 ; 3 and 3 ; 6, to test the hypotheses that adults repeat to establish that they have understood, and that children repeat to ratify what adults have said.…

Analysis of the distribution of punctors, a class of markers commonly classified as nervous tics, fillers, or signs of hesitation, in one corpus of French is presented. Some aspects of their conditioning are explained in terms of the interaction of etymological, discursive, syntactic, and social constraints. (Author/MSE)

Patterns of use of the French particles "bon, (eh) ben, and enfin" were analyzed in a corpus of spontaneous multispeaker conversation. Results show that each particle marks a particular type of discontinuity in the discourse. Turn-initial and turn-medial patterns are described for each. (17 references) (Author/MSE)

For better comprehension and more communicative production among francophones, students of French should be taught the use and function of detached phrases as they are used in popular spoken French. A specific approach distinguishing between appropriate spoken and written usage is outlined. (20 references) (MSE)

Using extracts from a corpus of naturally occurring French conversation, this study examines how the collaborative construction of episodes of shared laughter contributes to the achievement of affiliation between interlocutors. Results show that how laughter is initiated, where it is placed, and who joins in are significant to the task of…

Proposes a technique of developing conversational, expressive competence based on a discourse model. Exercises to develop an understanding of commercial negotiation illustrate the technique. (MSE)

This study analyzed complimenting behavior in French between French native speakers and American advanced French learners in seven dinner party conversations. Data are found to provide a rich source of lessons in politeness for both sociolinguistic and pedagogic descriptions of French speech acts. (Author/MSE)