Suggests that an analysis of spontaneous speech collected in a simulation can provide insight into the way messages are produced and understood. Describes an experiment which used this technique to study the linguistic performance and communication strategies in anglophone children learning French. (SED)

This paper describes a method to extract, by computer, maximum amounts of sequential information on pattern frequencies underlying verbal interactions in the foreign language classroom. For this purpose, an observation instrument was developed which was expected to allow the study of the structure of the interaction process; it was hypothesized…

Focuses on strategies of second-language learners who communicate among themselves. Pairs of students were left alone in a room with a sound recorder and instructions to describe a specific object. The communication strategy they selected to describe an object with no common referent was to paraphrase the object's function. (11 references) (CK)