• Klara SKOGMYR MARIAN, Cécile PETITJEAN & Simona PEKAREK DOEHLER (Université de Neuchâtel / Université de Neuchâtel & Université de Lausanne / Neuchâtel, Suisse)
    The development of second language interactional competence: Theoretical overview and empirical illustrations
    2017, Vol. XXII-2, pp. 127-145

    In this paper we investigate L2 interactional competence and its development over time. We first provide a historical overview of the advancements in L2 acquisition research that originated from a concern with communicative competence and led to the current concern with interactional competence, and discuss the results of existing conversation analytic work on interactional competence. We then present two empirical studies, one focusing on directives and the other on humor in L2 interactions. Based on our findings, we argue that the development of interactional competence implies a diversification of speakers'‘methods’ for accomplishing social actions in the L2, allowing them to increasingly tailor their interactional conduct to their interlocutors and to situational contingencies.


  • Cécile PETITJEAN & Simona PEKAREK DOEHLER (Université de Neuchâtel & Université de Lausanne / Neuchâtel, Suisse)
    Current developments in Conversation Analysis and studies examining interactions in French
    2017, Vol. XXII-2, pp. 5-14

    In the introduction to this issue, we address current developments in Conversation Analysis, with special attention paid to the contributions emanating from studies on French data. We first offer a short overview of these developments and then present the contributions to the special issue, thereby identifying some of the challenges addressed by current conversation analytic work, such as how the analysis of social interaction can relate to burning social issues, or if and how Conversation Analysis can be combined with other research paradigms, both conceptually and methodologically.


  • Etienne MOREL & Simona PEKAREK DOEHLER (Neuchâtel, Suisse)
    Multilingual communication in texting: code switching as a way of showing membership of a globalized community
    2013, Vol. XVIII-2, pp. 29-43

    This article explores the forms and the functions of code-switching (CS) in written communication with mobile phones. We present the major results emanating from research on CS in the SMS communication, and an analysis of a large corpus of French (Switzerland) text messages. The analysis identifies the texters hybrid language uses, and resorting to a limited number of CS types, typically morphosyntactically non complex, and related to internationalized words or formulae, associated to a limited number of domains which bare ‘cool’ and/or cosmopolitan connotations. These results suggest that CS is a resource by means of which participants display membership in a translinguistic and globalized community.


  • Simona PEKAREK DOEHLER (Neuchâtel, Suisse)
    "CA for SLA": Conversational analysis and language acquisition research
    2006, Vol. XI-2, pp. 123-137

    This article presents the line of research that has recently come to be called CA for SLA - conversation analysis for second language acquisition. In a first step, roots of CA for SLA in ethnomethodology and in the classical CA work are sketched. In a second step, key-concepts and methodological underpinnings are discussed, which radically challenge received conceptions of language and language learning. In a third step, the major research themes are presented. The article concludes with a brief note on practical implications of the findings as well as the (mainly methodological) challenges the field is currently confronting.