The Practical Nature of L2 Teaching: A Conversation Analytic Perspective

Drawing on video recordings and transcripts from a wide range of L2 teaching contexts, The Practical Nature of L2 Teaching presents a comprehensive examination of eight sets of specialized actions and action sequences involved in whole group instruction.

Each of the chapters highlights in exquisite detail the sophisticated, real-world accomplishment of L2 teaching. The purpose is not to impose a vision of how L2 teaching should be done. Instead, it is to illuminate its complexities and, in so doing, reveal informative differences between idealized understandings of L2 teaching and its lived realities.

The book is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers studying and working in the areas of classroom interaction, L2 teaching, and L2 teacher education.

Joan Kelly Hall is Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research draws on conversation analysis and interactional linguistics to document the specialized interactional practices and actions of teaching-and-learning found in instructional settings.

Yingliang He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. His research uses conversation analysis to investigate academic discourse. He has also conducted work in cognitive linguistics on cross-cultural and cross-linguistic conceptual metaphors.

Su Yin Khor is Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Director of the Writing Program at College of the Atlantic. Her research focuses on second language learning and teaching, specifically second language writing, literacy, and language socialization.