Icelandic learning in the wild: An overview with pedagogical implications

Abstract

This paper reviews conversation analytic research into Icelandic second language (L2) learning in the wild – that is, in settings outside of the classroom over which the teacher has no control. We investigate L2 learning as (1) activities that are socially accomplished through certain recognizable actions, and (2) as the development of interactional competence. We present examples of our work on learning behaviors in the wild. Specifically, we show (1) how our focal L2 speaker uses business encounters to practice Icelandic, (2) how she makes language contracts with the clerks to speak Icelandic, (3) how she insists on finishing her turns–at–talk even though mutual understanding has already been accomplished, and (4) how she carries out word searches and other repair practices to achieve learning. Focusing on her emergent uses of ‘ætla’, we then show how her interactional competence develops as she is using and learning to use ‘ætla’ in a range of lexically specific constellations to accomplish specific social actions at various points in time. We end the paper by concluding on our findings and discussing implications for language teaching and education. 

Keywords: Icelandic as a second language, Learning Icelandic in the wild, Conversation analysis and second language acquisition