A PARTICIPANT’S PERSPECTIVE ON TASKS: FROM TASK INSTRUCTION, THROUGH PRE-TASK PLANNING, TO TASK ACCOMPLISHMENT

Recent studies applying Conversation Analysis to classroom interaction have described language learning tasks as a local and collective accomplishment (e.g. Hellermann & Pekarek Doehler, 2010; Mondada & Pekarek Doehler, 2004; Mori, 2002). They highlight the gap that may exist between the intended purpose as materialized in task instruction and the actual performance of the task. Following this line of research, this paper investigates the relationship between task instruction, pre-task planning and task completion. Based on a corpus of French as a Foreign Language classroom interactions, we observe how six different groups that have received identical instructions organize and carry out the task. In a first analytical step, we show how the students engage in interactionally organized interpretative work regarding the task, and in organizing the distribution of roles and responsibilities for the task accomplishment. In a second step, we identify how participants orient to this initial distribution within the very course of accomplishing the task. Based on a sequential micro-analysis of participants’ conduct while planning and accomplishing the task, we show how Conversation Analysis contributes to a better understanding of language learning tasks from a participant-relevant perspective.