Locating and Solving Repairs in EFL Tutorial Discourse: Comparative Study of NS and NNS Tutors

Abstract

This study investigates the difference in the ways of native speaker tutors and nonnative speaker tutors in locating and solving repairs in an EFL writing tutorial discourse, within the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA). Based on two previous studies (Park 2007, Jung 2007) which studied the tutor discourse of nonnative tutees in the same context, the current study focuses on the comparative forms of dealing with repairs of the native tutors and nonnative tutors. The analysis consists of two parts, location of the trouble source and the act of doing the repairs, and further breaks each of the two parts down to three subsections: using questions, direct location and passing by the trouble source in the first part of the analysis; and direct repair, mitigated repair and learning enhancement in the second part of the analysis each concerning the location of the repair and solving of the repair respectively. This study further discusses the development of interactional issues in each of the respective tutorials and hopes to better the understanding of tutorial discourse through this study.