| Conversational interaction has been a major focus of study in second language acquisition research in recent years. A growing number of studies investigate what are called the interactional features of conversations between native speakers and non-native speakers and among non-native speakers themselves in a variety of settings and conditions.; This study utilizes Vygotskyan psycholinguistic theory, rooted in Soviet theories of language and thinking, to investigate task-based conversations involving native and non-native speakers of English. Data were elicited from fifteen dyads. A motive-based task distinction, i.e., speaking to solve problems versus solving problems to speak, was adopted to design tasks and administer them to these dyads.; Methodologically, the study adopts a hermeneutic, not a nomothetic, approach. It does not attempt to isolate variable(s) in order to predict the effects of these variables. Instead, it attempts to understand data through a process of reconstruction. Furthermore, the overriding design is non-statistical. Focus is on a detailed functional analysis of linguistic/conversational features in individual discourses and not on the statistical frequencies of these features across groups.; For its analytical framework, the study utilizes the Vygotskyan theory of activity. As such, motives, goals, and operations provide fundamental analytical constructs. Moreover, for its interpretation of data, the study depends on important theoretical vocabulary in Vygotskyan psycholinguistics, such as, situation definition, intersubjectivity, control, and inner/private speech.; In its findings, the study provides evidence for the view that the native speaker/non-native speaker distinction is not absolute, that any given task is significant in terms of how a subject defines it, and that a linguistic error has definite cognitive implications. The study focuses on the relationship between linguistic features and cognitive functions and locates second language processes within the broader domain of higher forms of human cognition. By doing so, it substantiates the view that an individual's activity of speaking, whether in L1 or L2, is fundamentally one of cognitive regulation. |
