The use of circumlocution strategies in foreign language interaction: a collaborative creation of meaning process

• Autores: Ana María Fernández Dobao
• Localización: Proceedings of the 30th International AEDEAN Conference: [electronic resource] / María Losada Friend (ed. lit.), Pilar Ron Vaz (ed. lit.), Sonia Hernández Santano (ed. lit.), Jorge Casanova García (ed. lit.), 2007, ISBN 978-84-96826-31-1
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper presents a study of the use of circumlocution strategies by Spanish learners of English in foreign language interactional contexts. Adopting a collaborative approach to the analysis of strategic interaction, attention is here paid to the actions that both learners and interlocutors take when the target language lexical item desired to convey an intended meaning is not available and a circumlocution strategy needs to be used. Evidence is obtained suggesting an active role of the interlocutor in the strategic communication of meaning process. With their actions, interlocutors accept or reject learners' strategic utterances. Sometimes, they even rephrase, expand or complete these utterances, in such a way that a circumlocution can be actually co-constructed by two different speakers. The results of these analyses suggest that the use of a circumlocution strategy in face-to-face interaction is part of a collaborative process. Successful communication of meaning in strategic interaction is collaboratively achieved through the joint and coordinated actions of the learner and their interlocutor.