The Organization of Language Classroom Interaction

In Chapters 3 and 4 I portrayed the organisation o f turn, sequence and repair in different L2 classroom contexts. In this chapter th e perspective broadens as I describe the overall organisation of L2 classroom interactio n. I introduce the concept of the rational design of institutional interaction and id entify the institutional goal as well as three interactional properties which derive directl y from the goal. I then identify the basic sequence organisation of L2 classroom interac tion as well as an emic methodology for its analysis. Next I exemplify how the institution of the L2 classroom is talked in and out of being by participants. The concept of the L2 classroom context, which was introduced in Chapters 3 and 4, is then p roblematised and located in a broader, tri-dimensional perspective on context. Finally I show how teachers create L2 classroom contexts and how they shift from one cont ext to another. In this chapter the interactional architecture o f the L2 classroom is portrayed as an example of the rational design of i nstitutional interaction, balancing invariant underlying institutional characteristics with extreme flexibility and variability. CA attempts to understand the organisation of the i nt raction as being rationally derived from the core institutional goal. Levinson sees the structural elements of institutional discourse as