Introduction

The present shift from the psycholinguistic to the socio-cultural focus on second language acquisition (SLA) studies has its impact on a renewed interest in second/foreign (L2) classroom interaction analysis. The aim of this paper is to apply Relevance Theory to L2 classroom interaction against the historical background of other approaches. An overview of those approaches is given in the first part of the paper. The second part focuses on the application of Relevance Theory to L2 classroom interaction analysis.

Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995) belongs to pragmatic theories of human communication, but at the same time it is also a theory of human cognition, consequently, it can be treated as a psycholinguistic theory. The present holistic treatment of the L2 learning/teaching process and its participants has expanded the range of applications of pragmatic and psycholinguistic theory to encompass different socio-cultural settings. Indeed the authors of Relevance Theory claim that the level of attempted relevance can vary according to circumstances and social occasions. In consequence, this author assumes that it is possible to interpret L2 classroom interaction in the light of Relevance Theory (Niżegorodcew 2007).

Survey of Approaches to L2 Classroom Interaction

Approaches to L2 classroom interaction can be divided into those that originate from teacher training courses, those that stem from Unequal Talk analysis, from SLA Discourse Theory and Interaction Theory, Communication Strategies, Conversation Analysis, and finally, those that are derived from Pragmatic Theory.