Negotiation for Meaning and Peer Assistance in Second Language ...

420 MEANING AND PEER ASSISTANCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS
Co-construction is the joint creation of an utterance, whether one person
completes what another has begun, or whether various people chime in
to create an utterance. Co-constructions are seen as allowing learners to
participate in forming utterances that they cannot complete individually,
building language skills in the process. In line 2 of the following example,
Sara completes her partner’s utterance.
1 G: Watashi no uchi:: no uh chikaku de (.) uhh booringu:
Near my house, bowling:
(G’s sentence is correct so far, but is missing the accusative particle
and verb).
! 2 Sr: o shimasu?
do?
(the verb ‘to bowl’ is ‘booringu o shimasu’)
3 G: Hai.
Yes.
(Excerpted from Ohta (2001: 94–5)
Other-correction involves a peer correcting his or her partner. In line 2 of
the following example, Candace corrects her partner by providing a recast
of his incorrectly conjugated adjective (line 1).
1 W: Tanoshi-te? (.) Tanoshi (.) te
Fun (.) Fun (.)?
(error—tries to use another form, but is wrong)
! 2 C: Tano:shi-katta.
was fun
(this is correct)
3 W: Tanoshi-katta desu
It was fun
(Excerpted from Ohta (2001: 96)
Self-correction is defined here as self-initiated, self-repair, and occurs when
learner corrects his or her own utterance without being prompted to do
so by another person. In the following example, Sara replaces the incorrect
particle no with the particle na.
! 1 S: Kirei no hi- kirei na hito I think.
Beautiful—Beautiful person, I think.
(error: S first picks the wrong particle, but self-corrects)
(Excerpted from Ohta (2001: 102, #16)
Continuers were discussed above with reference to confirmation checks.
They function to express an interlocutor’s interest in what the speaker is