Documenting multimodal language learning behavior over time:
A conversation analytic perspective
Numa Markee
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Silvia Kunitz
Stockholm University
ABSTRACT
We begin this paper by reviewing how the concept of longitudinal research has evolved
in conversation analytic research on (classroom) language learning. We then synthesize
these developments into a programmatic statement of how future longitudinal research in
conversation analysis might be understood as the documentation of learners’ shared
interactional histories of language learning behaviors. Such a programmatic statement
involves radically expanding the scope of what is meant by longitudinal research in the
classical second language acquisition literature by: 1) going beyond traditional concerns
with changes in learners’ syntax to include discoursal and pragmatic aspects of language;
and 2) reconceptualizing notions of learning in behavioral terms. These two changes also
entail significant respecifications of other important theoretical constructs, such as the
nature and scope of mind, cognition and context (among other issues) that have emerged
in current discussions of how to bridge the cognitive/social divide in second language
acquisition studies. We then illustrate how these theoretical matters play out in practice
through a detailed empirical analysis of learners’ shared interactional histories of
language learning in Italian as foreign language planning sessions. We close the paper
with suggestions for further research along the lines developed in the paper.
Plain English version
This paper reviews how conversation analysts who are interested in (second) language
learning set about documenting observable language learning behavior that occurs both in
the moment and over time. This approach provides a viable — though controversial —
alternative to more traditional cognitive approaches to language learning.