Developing Interactional Competence in a Japanese Study Abroad Context

Reviews / Votes

Written by a distinguished applied linguist, this book describes the development of interactional competence by learners from a wide variety of backgrounds studying abroad in Japan. These individuals learn not only the forms of a new language but how their new language creates identities of them in social situations, some of which the learners desire and some of which their interlocutors find strangely impolite. Through her innovative study of how interactional competence develops, the author paints an optimistic picture of how language learning develops through language use. -- Richard F Young, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA This novel work examines the development of interactional competence among L2 Japanese learners studying in Japan for one semester, focusing on their use of oft-undervalued, yet significant interactional resources: style-shifting and incomplete sentences. Case histories of four of the learners further reveal what contributed to their development. This book is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to those teaching Japanese or researching L2 acquisition. -- Noriko Iwasaki, SOAS, University of London, UK This book is essential for language learners and researchers, especially learners acquiring a second language in a study abroad context. Each chapter explores and explains clearly step by step how the author analyzed the process of second language acquisition. This study mainly discusses interactional competence focusing on speech style, and style shifting and incomplete sentences in the Japanese language. A study abroad setting was also considered as facilitator of second language acquisition in this study. -- Lisda Nurjaleka, Kanazawa University, Japan * LINGUIST List 27.3429 *