Rue Burch investigates how the use of gesture and the act of eating are used as resources to clarify a word that is unknown to the L2 user.
In all of the cooking classes we observed, the cooks asked the learners to read the list of ingredients and menu out loud. In terms of the goal of cooking the dish, this helps to prepare the learners for what is going to be expected. But it also provides the learners an opportunity to ask questions and to focus on words that they may not be familiar with.
Here, Luis and Saki are getting ready to prepare Chicken Francese. As Saki reads the ingredients, she encounters some difficulty with the word “parmesan”, which leads to an explanation that includes much more than words.
1 SAKI (f)a::r (0.2) parm- (0.2) pa:rme:zan. (.)
2 [cheese
3 LUIS [parmeʃanə.
4 SAKI par:meʃen chee[se¿
5 LUIS [that’s right.
6 (0.4)
7 SAKI hoo
8 |(0.7)
l-rh |shaking bottle of parmesan cheese
9 SAKI wot-? watchɨ mean. permiʃən:.
10 LUIS # yeah::# >so there’re< many types of cheeses,
11 SAKI °n[n°
12 LUIS [knn.
13 |(1.1)
l-rh |opening bottle, close, tries to twist cap
14 LUIS parmesan |cheese¿
l-rh |opens cap
15 |(0.6)
l-lh |hand out, palm up
16 LUIS >°°go like |this°°<
l-rh |PNT>LH palm
17 |(2.2)
s-lh |holds out, palm up
l-rh |pours cheese onto S’s palm
18 SAKI |°ah- (0.2) kho- ah |hah hah.°
pow-(der)
l-lh |open, palm up
l-rh |pours into own LH
l-hd |nods
19 (0.7)|(0.8)
l-rh |puts bottle on table
l |pulls down mask, eats handful of cheese
20 SAKI °°n°°
21 (0.4)
22 LUIS |HH HH hh hh hih
s |pulls down mask, eats handful of cheese
23 |(1.2)
l-bh |claps cheese off of hands
24 SAKI NNnn good.
25 LUIS >that’s goo[d.<
26 SAKI [Nn.
27 |(1.3)
s-bh |claps 3x
In line 1, Saki encounters some difficulty reading the word parmesan. After Luis demonstrates the pronunciation, she repeats the word, and Luis lets her know that her pronunciation was correct. This takes care of the pronunciation aspect, but she is not certain about what the word refers to, and therefore asks in line 9.
Luis starts with a verbal explanation in line 10, but from line 13 begins to take a more demonstrative approach. He opens the bottle, holds out his hand palm up (line 15), and quietly directs Saki to do the same while pointing at his palm (line 16). She responds in kind, and Luis pours some of the cheese into her open palm (line 17).
This is enough to deal with the recognitional problem. In line 18, Saki seemingly begins to say the Japanese word (kona chiizu), but cuts it off and instead simply claims understanding with ah hah hah and nods, all while Luis pours some cheese in his own hand as well. Of course, with cheese in hand, the claim of understanding can’t be where this ends. Luis pulls down his mask and eats the cheese he has poured into his hand, and Saki then does the same (lines 19 – 22). They both then assess the cheese as “good”.
In interactions where L2 speakers face difficulty with referents, it is not rare for the more expert speaker to depict or enact some aspect of the referent in order to clarify it for the L2 speaker. This is often done through gesture, or perhaps even through writing or drawing (cf. Greer, 2019; Greer & Leyland, 2020; Kasper & Burch, 2016). Here, however, Luis invites Saki to experience the referent in a more multisensorial (Mondada, 2019; 2021) way, treating the texture and the taste of the parmesan cheese as more integral to its “meaning” than any verbal description could capture. Cooking classes afford this multisensorial approach to dealing with vocabulary issues.
References
Greer, T. (2019). Noticing words in the wild. In J. Hellermann, S. Eskildsen, & S. Pekarek Doehler & A. Piirainen Marsh (Eds.). Conversation analytic research on learning-in-action: The complex ecology of L2 interaction in the wild (pp. 131-158). Springer.
Greer, T. & Leyland, C. (2020). Inscribed objects as resources for achieving progressivity in lesson planning talk. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 14(2), 200-229. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.33667
Kasper, G. & Burch, A.R. (2016). Focus on form in the wild. In R.A. van Compernolle & J. McGregor (Eds.), Authenticity, language, and interaction in second language contexts (pp. 198-232). Multilingual Matters.
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