2016

Lilja, Niina; Piirainen-Marsh, Arja

Situated at the intersection of usage-based and social interactional approaches to L2 learning (CA-SLA, in particular) and informed by usage-based research, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of objects in understanding and designing language learning activities. In particular, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of smartphones in group discussions in L2 classrooms. The data comes from “learning-in-the-Wild” tasks designed for courses focusing on conversational Finnish. The interactions around these activities were videotaped and analysed using the methods of multimodal conversation analysis. The analysis shows that in the classroom discussions the students used the phones as objects to think and remember with. The potentials of the phone were used in identifying and making sense of moments of trouble and constructing objects of learning. In the spatial organisation and material ecology of the classroom, the phone also crucially shaped the organisation of participation in the learning activities.