A microanalytic investigation of vocabulary revisions in young learner EFL classrooms

This master thesis primarily investigates the sequential unfolding of previously taught vocabulary items in a young language learner (YLL) classroom adopting conversation analytic perspective. It draws on the analysis of a data-set coming from 16 classroom hours (40 minutes each) of video recordings of an EAL classroom in a private language school in the capital of Turkey. Using Conversation Analysis (CA), it sheds light on how the teacher revises previously taught vocabulary items before starting the main activity or the new topic of the week by referencing to past learning events. As such, this study introduces how the teacher not only explores the students' learning state of the previously taught vocabulary items but also creates learning opportunities by using dialogic approach to vocabulary explanation. By demonstrating the sequential organization of vocabulary revisions regarding the word class (nouns, adjectives, noun phrases), it verifies that the overall sequential organization of vocabulary revisions fits the triadic structure of classroom interaction. Besides, it presents how verbal, embodied and visual resources are employed during vocabulary revisions regarding the word class. Finally, it elucidates that vocabulary revisions predominantly reinforce the definitional meaning of the target vocabulary items during discrete revisions of the nouns and adjectives whereas noun phrase revisions also allow students to improve other aspects of their vocabulary knowledge including both meaning and use. The findings of this thesis have implications for teaching vocabulary to YLLs, and L2 Classroom Interactional Competence. Keywords: young language learners, vocabulary revision sequences, conversation analysis