Negotiation Strategies in Short-Term Two-Way Conversation Partnerships: Their Use and Usefulness
Abstract
Past studies in language teaching have addressed the issue of whether the benefits of formal instruction outweigh those of naturalistic instruction, or vice versa.1 This study examined 1 aspect of naturalistic instruction closely: the conversation partnership. There were 3 conversation partnerships (English/Mandarin, English/Arabic, and English/Korean); each partner played the role of native speaker (NS) and nonnative speaker (NNS) of 1 language. An underlying idea of this study is that the repercussions of a relationship in which members are equal partners in language learning may extend beyond the relationship and into the community. These pairs were organized by the ESL Center at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). Transcripts of 10-minute English parts of 6 conversations (2 from each partnership) were examined for uses of certain negotiation strategies, and the participants’ opinions regarding the usefulness of these strategies in learning English, Mandarin, Arabic or Korean were sought.