Interpretation / 152
qualified guesses made on the basis of any information available.
(Faerch and Kasper,1986:265).
But It Is In their role of topic incorporation and coherence devices that
clarification exchanges are also missed in the Dialogue Texts. Examine
for example Dialogue Text 8 (see Annex 3.3). The exchanges at Figures 1
and 2 allow for propositional development in that the second part of the
exchanges (Paulo's turns) follows coherently the first. But taken together
as part of a conversations, there is no relationship beteen the 2
exchanges. The same applies to Text Dialogue 10 (Annex 3.4). This will
prove an obstacle for their use in role-play (see 5.6.1). A clarification
exchange, perhaps with a reply offering elaboration, would provide the
necessary link, and would allow for more participation on the part of the
child.
Again, if Dialogues Texts took into account the setting of multilingual
communicative events in the country, and the characters used the L2 as
lingua franca, much of the ordinary patterns of Interaction could be used
productively in the learning of the L2: for example, clarification
exchanges would be a common and justified feature, with the double
advantage of reproducing familiar discourse patterns and providing the
children with the appropriate linguistic forms and conventions used to
ask clarification in the L2.