Embodied activities and communicative strategies: a case study in French formal and classroom conversation

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to add to the growing research on the impact of embodied activities and communicative strategies in conversational second language settings. Studies performed by Atkinson, Nishino, Churchill, and Okada (2007), Goodwin (2000, 2003, 2007), Gregersen (2005), and others have highlighted the importance of embodied activities such as gaze, gesture, participation frameworks, and affect and their impact on communication in and outside of language learning. Using a sociocognitive approach (Atkinson, 2002, 2011), this study examines the ways in which participation in a simulated L2 community affects students' communicative strategies in the target language, taking into account the social and environmental factors involved in second language acquisition as well as cognitive ones. The results show variation between the communicative strategies used in informal and classroom conversation in the target language.