A longitudinal conversation analytic study on L2 construction learning in a kindergarten classroom

This study documents the intricate relationship between classroom interaction and L2 learning by bringing empirical evidence for L2 construction learning in a kindergarten EFL classroom. The longitudinal video-recorded data were collected from a face-masked kindergarten classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic and examined using Multimodal Conversation Analysis. The analysis showed the emergence of two L2 constructions as the immediate learning objects and the retrospective and prospective examination of the data allowed for the documentation of their gradual sedimentation into two different learners' L2 repertoires. For the better understanding of the learners' and the teacher's roles in shaping the learning processes, the analysis was organized as (i) teacher initiated L2 construction learning (i.e., little bit) and (ii) learner initiated L2 construction learning (i.e., me too). With the examination of the cases of little bit, interactional routines, embodied explanations, translanguaging, choral repetition, understanding checks, repairing dispreferred responses, and designedly incomplete utterances were found as the teacher practices deployed strategically for the introduction and circulation of the construction to facilitate L2 construction learning. The analysis of the construction me too indicated the learners' collaborative accomplishment of resolving an interactional trouble as the point of emergence, and the focal learner's peer-prompted and finally unprompted use of the construction in situ. Accordingly, learner initiated L2 construction learning was enacted as an outcome of the prominent role of peers, thus their learner initiatives, in creating learning opportunities. The findings bring new insights into L2 learning in kindergarten classrooms and provide rich pedagogical implications to kindergarten language teachers.