Practices for initial recognitional reference and learning opportunities in conversation § Younhee Kim * English Language and Literature, National Institute of Education (NIE), 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Singapore Received 2 March 2011; received in revised form 29 December 2011; accepted 15 February 2012 Abstract This article contributes to the recently arising CA-for-SLA (Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition) inquiry by demonstrating how an understanding of interactional practices may inform our understanding of language learning. The target interactional practice examined in this article is a set of referential practices, particularly for establishing initial recognitional reference of a third person or object when the name or a relevant lexical item for the target referent is not available to the speaker. Based on close examination of sequential organization of a set of practices for achieving mutually understood reference in casual conversations between L1 and L2 English speakers, the study shows how structural opportunities for language learning are generated in interaction, which serves to broaden our understanding of the relationship between certain interactional practices and learning opportunities afforded in such practices. The issue of participants’ orientation to such sequential environments as learning opportunities is also discussed. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Conversation analysis; L2 talk; Conversation for language learning; Referential practices 1. Introduction This article contributes to the recently arising CA-for-SLA (conversation analysis for second language acquisition) inquiry by demonstrating how an understanding of interactional practices may inform our understanding of learning (Hall et al., 2011; Kasper and Wagner, 2011; Pallotti and Wagner, 2011). The target interactional practice examined in this article is a set of referential practices, particularly for initial recognitional reference of a third person or object. Achieving mutually understood reference is a basic and ubiquitous task in conversation. Simple as it may seem, it involves a great deal of interactional work. Being part of a larger project that provides descriptions of sequential organization of a set of practices for achieving mutually understood reference, this article reports on how those practices lend themselves to occasioning and embodying the activity of language or cultural learning. Making a reference and achieving recognition thereof seems to be one of the very basic and essential tasks that needs to be achieved in conversation. It is the most basic step in achieving intersubjectivity in conversation. Among the vast domain that referential practices cover, this study focuses on initial recognitional reference to a third person or object 1 and, subsequently, its relevance to learning opportunities in conversation. While a great deal of research effort has been focused on the use of anaphora in reference from an interactional point of view (just to name a few, Clancy, 1980; Enfield www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Pragmatics 44 (2012) 709–729 § I would like to thank Gabriele Kasper and Jack Bilmes for their guidance and comments in the earlier stages of this project. I am also mostly grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments. All remaining errors are, of course, mine. * Tel.: +65 6790 3391; fax: +65 6896 9149. E-mail address: younheek@gmail.com. 1 As one of the reviewers has pointed out, the data excerpts cited in this article mostly deal with object reference although the entire project on which this article is based includes both person and object reference. 0378-2166/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2012.02.005