Initiating round robins in the L2 classroom - preliminary observations

Complementing recent interactional research on the contingent operation of online task accomplishment, this paper deals with a specific way of organizing and managing tasks in plenary L2 classrooms – namely the round robin. This may seem like a “traditional” and rigid form of classroom organization that reduces students’ contributions to responses to the teacher’s elicitations. This paper shows that although the round robin puts certain interactional features out of play, it is nonetheless done in and through participants’ mutual orientation to the ongoing activity. The paper describes the sequential position in which round robins are initiated and how this is talked and embodied into being by the participants as well as the design of the turn that initiates the round robin activity. Relevant to the initiation and further development of the round robin are the physical arrangement of the classroom and artefacts and graphic structures that are used not only as mediating tools in the (supposed) learning relevant activity, but also as structurally relevant features to organize the ongoing interaction, in which these activities emerge.