Multilingual Repertoire in Use and Development: A Conversation Analytic Study of a Peer Language Tutorial

• In Event: Expanding the Notions of "Multilingualism" and "Multimodality" by Examining Multilingual Practice Across Various Educational Contexts

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of this presentation is to illuminate how multilingual students continue to expand their repertoires of communication by building on resources at their disposal, and thereby demonstrate the reality of multilingual practice and learning beyond the classroom. In particular, by examining Thai language tutorial interactions among Thai and Japanese college students, the study unravels the moment-by-moment details of how participants carry out the shared undertakings through the coordinated use of diverse resources including not just named languages (i.e., English, Thai, and Japanese) but also embodied actions and routinized sequences.

Theoretical Framework
Adopting Conversation Analysis (CA), this study construes language learning as biographical, ongoing, and non-linear (Eskildsen, 2018). A key premise of CA is that it regards social actions as primary and linguistic and non-linguistic resources as equally important to the constitution of interaction. Beyond an exclusive focus on linguistic knowledge, language learning from a CA perspective, thus, entails the expansion of the notion of repertoire to include “conventionalized constellations of semiotic resources for taking action” (Hall, Chen, & Carlson, 2006, p. 232). The understanding of language learning as multimodal repertoire building aptly reflects the reality of globalization wherein an ever-increasing number of people traverse geographical and virtual spaces and continue learning bits and pieces of named languages and communicative norms (Blommaert, 2010).

Methods and Data
The video-recorded tutorial interactions examined in this study are taken from semester-long fieldwork on the experience of Japanese exchange students enrolled in an English-medium study abroad program at a university in Bangkok, Thailand. Peer language tutorial is a form of Conversation-for-Learning (i.e., non-formal pedagogical interaction) which is emerging as a promising pedagogical genre in CA scholarship against the backdrop of the messiness of language use and learning in the wild (e.g., Kasper & Kim, 2015; Kim, 2019). The researcher watched the recordings repeatedly to discern patterns of how diverse resources are organized in carrying out the tutorial, while exercising caution to treat configurations of interactional resources (including named languages) as epiphenomena of participation as per CA’s theoretical orientation (Eskildsen, 2018). The interactions were transcribed using multimodal CA conventions (Mondada, 2016) to expose minute details, such as how each turn is constructed and sequenced.

Results and Significance
The analysis showcases various ways in which multilingual and multimodal resources are deployed to perform relevant actions, including: a) disambiguating the recipient through embodied actions; b) signaling activity shifts through code-switching; c) and providing explanations for Thai cultural practices by meshing languages, objects, and embodied actions. Furthermore, beyond the official target language (i.e., Thai), the presentation also shows how the participants manage their covert orientation towards teaching/learning Japanese, which illuminates how language learning is embedded in social interaction. Findings of the study will add useful insight into language learning in the context of global mobility and ambient multilingualism wherein individuals are faced with the constant need to continue expanding their repertoires of communication occasioned by their unfolding life trajectories. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the changing responsibilities of language educators in light of the findings.

Author

• Daisuke Kimura, Tokyo Institute of Technology