Abstract:

Studies on classroom discourse suggest that discourse has its own rules and conventions and that language used in the classroom is different from language used in ordinary conversation. A type of conversational repair which has emerged from discourse study is error correction. The issue of error correction has been labeled and studied differently depending on the nature of the discipline and the goals of the researchers. Linguists have predominantly examined error correction in terms of negative evidence, second language teachers label error correction as corrective feedback and discourse analysts have referred to it as repair. The general aim of this study is to analyze the discourse of students interacting in an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom and to examine some of the ways talk is repaired in both small group and large classroom discussions. Specifically, this study addresses how errors and repairs are different, how they are initiated and in what settings they occur. The originality of this study is specific to the topic of repair in small and large classroom settings. The small classroom setting described in this research study is a student-fronted NNS-NNS (non-native-non-native speaker) small group discussion, while the large classroom setting is a teacher-fronted NS-NNS (native speaker-non-native speaker) large classroom discussion. Based on a discourse analysis and statistical analysis of audio taped conversations among twenty-nine ESL college students during these group and class discussions, the results revealed that repair does occur in ESL talk more readily when students participated in NNS-NNS small group discussions and small group interactions provide greater opportunities for repair. The findings in this study also suggest possible future pedagogical implications for ESL classroom teaching, making an argument for incorporating more peer led, small group discussions for second language learners, where students have the opportunity to collaborate in discussion, second language learning and repair.