Doing solving spelling problems in a Swedish EFL classroom : A conversation analytic study

Abstract: This thesis investigates how high school students collaboratively solve naturally occurring spelling problems in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in Stockholm, Sweden. The study is motivated by the scarcity of research on spelling solving, both in terms of the observable spelling practices adopted by the students and in terms of the collaborative management of spelling issues in the second/foreign language classroom. The theoretical and methodological framework is multimodal ethnomethodological conversation analysis (CA). The data consists of video recordings of ten EFL lessons that took place during five consecutive school days. The thesis focuses specifically on three spelling solving episodes and analyzes at the micro level the process by which the students go from initiating to closing the spelling solving sequence. In providing fine-grained accounts of the students’ verbal and embodied actions as they collaboratively attempt to solve the spelling problems, the thesis respecifies spelling solving strategies as observable spelling solving practices. The analysis demonstrates how the participants orient to spelling solving as an important form-focused activity. Moreover, the analysis shows how the students integrate different verbal and embodied resources as well as cultural artifacts to accomplish the spelling solving. Finally, the analysis demonstrates how the students’ relative orientations to individual versus collaborative achievements and their management of epistemic rights and responsibilities in completing the task influence the sequential organization and the outcome of the solving sequences. The thesis discusses the findings in relation to prior work on spelling solving and also points out potential implications for second/foreign language instruction that may be of use for current and future EFL instructors.