ABSTRACT
This conversation analytic chapter analyses the interplay of multimodal and material resources in the situated construction of meaning of newly encountered vocabulary in second language (L2) interaction. Specifically, I analyze the collaborative, multimodal construction of meaning of new words that ensues from the participants’ unequal epistemic statuses. The participants use materials to identify new words and pragmatic and depictive gestures to reach intersubjectivity on new meanings, but the multimodal actions and the uses of materiality change from one example to the next, suggesting that the explanation practices are locally contextualized. While access to video data therefore gives us a much more nuanced understanding of L2 learning and use, the question of whether the locally contextualized verbal and bodily practices documented here are generalizable to other settings (same speakers across time or contexts, or other speakers) remains a point for future research.
