Review of Social Interaction and L2 Classroom Discourse

Social Interaction and L2 Classroom Discourse investigates interactional practices in L2 classrooms. Using Conversation Analysis, the book unveils the processes underlying the co-construction of mutual understanding in potential interactional troubles in L2 classrooms – such as claims of insufficient knowledge (as previously described by Sert 2011) – and their resolutions. Sert defines “L2” as “an umbrella term that stands for a(n) second/foreign/additional language used in an instructed language learning setting” (p.1) – and throughout his book he uses a diverse dataset, ranging from language taster sessions over foreign language classrooms in monolingual contexts to English as an Additional Language settings in a multilingual context. This variety of settings allows him to examine a range of verbal and non-verbal features of classroom interaction, for example how code-switching is used in multilingual settings, and what the role of multimodal (such as gestures and gaze) and epistemic (for instance claims of insufficient knowledge and epistemic status checks) resources employed by students and teachers is. The book is structured in three sections: survey (Chapters 2 and 3), analysis (Chapters 4-6), and application (Chapters 7 and 8). A central focus throughout the entire book is classroom interactional competence and its influence on language learning.