JALT2025 - Tokyo

Embodied Actions in the Negotiation of Meaning in L2 Talk

Oct 31, 2025, 4:00 PM

1h

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center / 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター

Poster Presentation (60-minutes) Sociocultural Linguistics and Pragmatics Room 416

Speaker

Deepti Mishiro (Osaka Metropolitan and Mukogawa Women's University)

Description

This study examines how embodied actions function as interactional resources for negotiating meaning in multiparty L2 discussions. Video recordings of first-year undergraduates discussing summer vacation plans in an EFL classroom are analyzed to show how learners employ gestures, spatial movements, and partial speech to resolve interactional difficulties. The findings demonstrate how embodied actions facilitate mutual understanding, play a key role in meaning negotiation, and sustain interactional progress in L2 classroom interaction.

Summary

This study examines how embodied actions function as interactional resources for negotiating meaning in multiparty L2 discussions. Video recordings of first-year undergraduates discussing summer vacation plans in an EFL classroom are analyzed to show how learners employ gestures, spatial movements, and partial speech to resolve interactional difficulties. The findings demonstrate how embodied actions facilitate mutual understanding, play a key role in meaning negotiation, and sustain interactional progress in L2 classroom interaction.