Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Interpretation / 151

5.4.2 Classroom Dialogue Texts

Ho doubt the complete absence of clarification exchanges makes Dialogue
Texts sound like artificial and non genuine interactions. If clarification
exchanges are considered exclusively as repairs for misunderstanding,
they are quite rightly considered redundant in a written text; but, even
taking this view of clarification as mere repair work, Dialogue Texts are
supposed to represent oral discourse for further oral practice, and in a
L2 where misunderstandings are all too common. In fact, a significant
increase in clarification exchanges is expected when speakers have to
rely on fewer background cues, or cultural interpretations are not
necessarily shared (Corsaro,1977, Schwartz,1980). Kepair work is a
feature of learner's language, and even if it is often signalled non-
Iinguistically, it is crucial for the learner to know how to ask a
clarification request. Fluency is not confined to the utterance, and one
aspect of fluency is the ability to regulate conversation, including the
use of gambits to signal the Intention of taking, keeping or giving the
floor; fluency is also a function of the way clarification is sought in
cases of mishearing, misunderstanding, or In order to probe further into
the meaning and intentions of the interlocutor's utterances.

Brown points to the importance of analyzing comprehension strategies in
Interaction, comprehension being necessarily as selective and interpretive
as production:

One crucial skill in coping with [the less-than-ideal messages
typical of] normal language lies in the ability to recognize when
the message you have just heard is inadequate (Brown,G.,1986:298)

Clarification requests are clear signals that more or different meaningful
information is needed, and are therefore an essential component of lear-
ner's language, in L2 activities and in classroom discourse (see pages
149 and 1C8):

Comprehension takes place when input and knowledge are matched
against each other. ... In order to ^rbridge' gaps in either input or
knowledge, the recipient activates inferencing procedures, l.e.

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