The Effects of Accommodation on the Pursuit of Interaction in Naturalistic Settings

The Effects of Accommodation on the Pursuit of Interaction in Naturalistic Settings. Aiko Pletch KanashiroAlthough the benefits of engaging in genuine interactions for second language (L2) learning have been widely documented (Mackey, 2009), and students are constantly reminded to take advantage of opportunities to interact with fluent speakers outside the classroom, many L2 learners are reticent to do so.Anecdotes explaining this reticence abound, but there has been little systematic exploration of this phenomenon.This thesis explores this issue in the context of Montreal, a French-English bilingual city where opportunities to interact with target language speakers are plentiful, but learners do not always avail themselves of these opportunities.Using a questionnaire and a Matched Guise task, we surveyed 51 Anglophones and 62 Francophones on their perceptions regarding their prospect for, hopes and fears of, and success in engaging in genuine communication in their L2.Results show Anglophones do not seek out genuine interaction for the purposes of language learning.While Anglophone non-learners expect to be respond to in French after initiating a conversation with Francophones in French, Anglophone learners expect a variety of different responses in the same context depending on the Francophone interlocutor they are speaking with.Overall, the findings paint a complex picture of factors underlying Montreal L2 learners' success or failure to engage in communicative interactions with native speakers of their target language.Chapter 1 Statement of the Problem SLA researchers have focused considerable time and effort on discussing the benefits of interaction in second language learning (see Mackey, 2007, for a review of empirical studies on this topic).Interaction can be defined as "communication between or joint activity involving two or more people" (Encarta World English dictionary) working together and affecting each other in the process.Long's (1981Long's ( , 1983Long's ( , 1985) ) interaction hypothesis fostered studies on the effects of interaction on second language learning.The Interaction Hypothesis builds on Krashen's (1980) Input Hypothesis that states that in order for language learning to take place, learners must be exposed to language that is one level of difficulty above their present ability.Krashen refers to this language input as i+1, or comprehensible input.Long's Interaction Hypothesis suggests that L2 learners would learn the L2 best if they engaged in genuine interaction with native or fluent speakers of their L2.Their need to communicate would force them to "negotiate" the input so that it becomes comprehensible to them (Long, 1983).In other words, if they interact in their second language, L2 learners are likely to be in situations where if they do not understand speech addressed to them they could indicate this in some way (e.g., clarification requests, confirmation and comprehension checks (Long, 1983)), leading their interlocutors to modify their speech and make it adequately comprehensible to them.According to Long's Interaction Hypothesis, it is this negotiated comprehensible input available to learners during interaction that will enhance their language skills.Pica, Doughty and Young (1986) studied non-native speakers (NNS) who were exposed to two different conditions for completing an assembly task.In the first condition, they were

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