Multimodality in Second Language Talk: The Impact of Video Analysis on SLA Research
The first wave of an interactionist approach in classroom interaction in general, which had its roots in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (CA), started in the mid-1970s (e.g. Mchoul 1978; Mehan 1979). In second language (SL) research, however, it was not before the mid-1990s when the dominance of the traditional cognitivist approach to second language acquisition – which concentrates on mental learning processes (see Doughty, Long 2003) – was questioned in favour of the analysis of language use in social interaction (Firth, Wagner 1997). Since then, many studies have begun to demonstrate the significance of analysing talk-in-interaction in classrooms as an indispensable part of the social and cognitive context for language learning, a development that has come to be known as the ‘social turn’ in SL learning studies (Block 2003).
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