Understanding and being understood: negotiation in English and Japanese native and nonnative child interaction

The role of negotiation has been investigated in the field of second language acquisition for over twenty years, however, limited attention has been given to negotiated peer interaction with younger learners. Moreover, related studies sometimes include baseline data of the English native speaker in native and nonnative dyads, but negotiation and its relevance to the nonnative speaker's first language is usually not examined. This study investigates how children negotiate partial or non-understanding in their first as well as in a second language (LI and L2), allowing an identification of similarities and differences in intra- and inter-language negotiation. -- Drawing on a mainly qualitative analysis of task-based interaction by 24 Australian-English and 24 Japanese school children (11-12 year olds), this cross-sectional study looks in a comprehensive way at functions and forms of negotiated interaction in their LI and between LI and L2 speakers of English. It establishes a framework, which permits understanding of the negotiation process and its contribution to language learning. In addition, the study teases out the role of Same-speaker and Other-speaker repetition, showing that all repetition can facilitate the learner's language development. Another innovative contribution of the research is that it addresses pragmatic features such as silent and voiced pauses and their impact on negotiation. -- This investigation advances our understanding in regard to analyses of specific negotiation features that have received little consideration so far. Furthermore, comparisons of LI patterns and norms allow for a grounded and informed approach when addressing L1/L2 interactions. The findings reveal that LI interactions can vary quite considerably from L1/L2 interactions, which raises issues relevant to language learners, teachers and linguists.