Language, embodiment, and the material ecology: Embodied and material resources for repairs in second language interactions

This chapter analyzes embodied and material resources for accomplishing repair in an English L2 classroom. We draw on insights from the embodied turn in interaction research which refers to an understanding that human sense-making in interaction draws on gesture, gaze, posture, talk, as well as orientations to configurations of space, objects, and tools in the environment. We consider verbal language and body-materiality to be intertwining resources for social action, and human interaction as achieved through assemblages of flexible, locally adaptable multimodal templates. The focus of our analysis is how repair starts with verbal-gestural resources and increasingly comes to rest on material resources when unresolved. We finish by discussing implications for L2 learning.