ABSTRACT
The notion of miscommunication conjures up negative images—images of basic information exchange gone awry. This chapter focuses on certain types of miscommunication, notably those that require conversational negotiation either of meaning or of form, are beneficial from the standpoint of learning. It argues that negotiation is a means of drawing attention to linguistic form, making it salient and thereby creating a readiness for learning. It is furthermore a way in which learners receive feedback on their own production. When something is not produced according to the standards of the target language, speakers will often receive an indication through an indicator that initiates a negotiation sequence. An eventual theory of second language acquisition will need to account inter alia for the nature of linguistic knowledge (i.e., competence in the theoretical sense) that L2 learners attain and how that knowledge is attained. Attention, accomplished in part through negotiation, is one of the crucial mechanisms in this process.
