"Qu'est-ce que maman dit?": l'accomplissement des directives en français L2 par un jeune homme au pair

Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates how Vicente, a young au-pair and second language speaker of French, gives directives to the host family children in the Frenchspeaking part of Switzerland. The study specifically analyzes a set of directive sequences occurring toward the end of Vicente's four-month stay, in which he invokes through questions and threats the mother's superior authority in pursuing directives after nonaligning responses from the children. In doing so, Vicente displays his increased ability to tailor his interactional conduct to the local situational circumstances and thus his increased L2 interactional competences.