Non-native Speaker Interaction : Does it constitute a good learning situation for pupils studying English as a foreign language?

Abstract: Proponents of communicative language teaching in foreign language classrooms assume that the learners will profit from interacting in the target language on meaningful topics. The present study investigated whether non-native speaker interaction constitutes a good learning situation. Four research questions were posed: how pupils deal with breakdowns in communication, if they use any strategies to avoid problems, if they collaborate and negotiate for meaning and consequently if open-ended conversations among learners promote language development. Pupils in a Swedish secondary school were recorded interacting in the target language and conversation analysis was used to examine the data. It was found that there was a common structure to the way that the pupils dealt with problems, a few strategies were used and the pupils also collaborated. However, the conversations lacked some of the characteristics of interaction between native and non-native speakers that research have shown to be conducive to language development. Also, almost no negotiation of meaning was observed. Based on these results it is argued that non-native speaker interaction constitutes a good learning situation but probably needs to be accompanied by more explicit instruction.