Negotiated Interaction in Target Language Classroom Discourse (review)

In an effort to broaden the scope of target language (TL) acquisition research Jamila Boulima uses a conversational-analytic approach to study the negotiated interaction in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in Morocco. B’s book reports on the findings of this study. It consists of eight chapters. Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’ (1–16), provides an overview of the research area and an operationalized definition of negotiated interaction, which B more narrowly defines in terms of TL research later in the book as ‘the modifications occurring in conversations between NSs [native speakers] and NNSs [nonnative speakers], target language teachers and learners, or between advanced NNSs and less proficient NNSs’ (57). Ch. 1 concludes with research questions, the hypotheses, and the rationale of the study.

Ch. 2, ‘Negotiated interaction in second language acquisition’ (17–90), offers an extensive literature review of the role of comprehensibility in second language acquisition (SLA) including: Stephen Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis (‘The input hypothesis’, Georgetown University round table on languages and linguistics: Current issues on bilingual education, ed. by James E. Alatis, 168–80, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1980); Diane Larsen-Freeman and Michael H. Long’s taxonomy of linguistic adjustments to NNSs (An introduction to second language acquisition research, London: Longman, 1991); Elaine Tarone’s conscious communication strategies taxonomy (‘Conscious communication strategies in interlanguage’, On TESOL ’77: Teaching and learning English as a second language: Trends in research and practice, ed. by H. D. Brown, C. A. Yorio, and R. C. Crymes, Washington, DC: TESOL, 1977); Susan Gass’s 1988 comprehended input hypothesis (‘Integrating research areas: A framework for second language studies’, Applied Linguistics 9.198–217); and Merrill Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis (‘Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development’, Input in second language acquisition, ed. by Susan Gass and C. Madden, 235–56, Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1985). Ch. 2 also presents the findings of empirical negotiated interaction studies and, in the end, establishes a relationship between negotiated interaction and SLA.

In Ch. 3, ‘Methodology’ (91–103), B explains how fifteen EFL lessons from three different proficiency levels in three different secondary schools in Rabat, Morocco were recorded and transcribed. In Ch. 4, ‘Foreign language interaction analysis system (FLIAS)’ (105–34), B elaborates on how the transcripts of the classroom interactions were coded and analyzed. Various types of transactions, exchanges, moves, and acts are explained and exemplified.

Ch. 5, ‘Discourse functions of negotiation in the TL classroom’ (135–81), presents four different genres of didactic negotiation, seven types of conversational negotiation, and two types of conversational continuants in the TL classroom setting. By examining each one of these genres and types, B is able to provide frequency analyses of negotiation in Ch. 6, ‘Frequency distribution of negotiation in the TL classroom’ (183–219). B finds meaning-oriented and content-orientated negotiation, as well as conversational continuants, as the most frequent types of classroom negotiation. B also provides an analysis of genre and type by EFL proficiency level/grade.

B examines the issue of conversational unequal power in the classroom in Ch. 7, ‘Negotiation in a setting of unequal-power discourse’ (221–65). B finds preference in the data for teacher-initiated didactic and teacher-initiated conversational negotiation and presents a discussion on pupil-initiated ‘disjunctive negotiation’, a rare face-threatening act in the data, and modulated/unmodulated disjunctive negotiations, which were also deemed rare according to the data.

B concludes the book with Ch. 8, ‘Conclusion’ (267–81), summarizing the findings of the study, answering the research questions posed in Ch. 1, addressing the limitations of the study, suggesting implications for applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, and suggesting future research. This book is of great value to researchers who want to apply conversational analysis to SLA.