Rethinking Self-Repair: L2 users’ Intrapsychological Interaction in Comparison to Talk-in-Interaction

This paper is to rethink the issue of repair-sequences in inter- and intra- personal interactions during L2 reading. While the issue of self-repair sequences in talk-in-interaction has been explored in lots of existing studies, the comparison of self-repair in both interactions was not much discussed in the fields of conversation analysis(CA) as well as second language acquisition (SLA). Adopting Goffman’s (1981) notion of footing, a reader simultaneously becomes a reader and a speaker in intrapsychological interaction while reading. Therefore, in this discussion of repair, especially self-initiated self-repair sequences, we compared those in inter- and intra-psychological speech and found how meaning is negotiated through repair between the text materials and the L2 reader. Taking Vygotskian socio-cognitive theory, the findings of this study are: first, the momentary processes of meaning making actions deploying how intersubjectivity can be constructed by the self being a reader, a speaker, and a listener simultaneously; second, the structural similarity of self-repair sequences between the two types of interaction; and third, the cognitive function of repair in both types of speech events.