Human Spoken Interaction as a Complex Adaptive System

Aki Siegel is an Assistant Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden and a Senior Lecturer at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Her research focuses on language development in and through spoken interactions from a longitudinal and a complex dynamic systems theory perspective. She investigates English as a lingua franca and multilingual multicultural interactions using multimodal and mixed methods approaches. Recently, she is interested in the dynamics of human relationship-building in interaction through multiple encounters. Paul Seedhouse is Professor of Educational and Applied Linguistics and Director of ilab:learn at Newcastle University, UK. He researches what is universal about human spoken interaction, using a complex systems approach to argue that all human populations combine the same basic interaction engine with diverse overlaid languages.With colleagues in Computing Science over 14 years, he has worked on 4 grants to use digital technology to enable users to learn languages through cultural activities, resulting in the ENACT web app. This provides a universal infrastructure to enable people around the world to display and appreciate their commonality and diversity.He has also had 5 grants from the IELTS consortium to study spoken interaction in the IELTS Speaking Test. His book The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective (2004) won the 2005 Modern Language Association of America Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize.

Highly recommended, it is eminently readable for both newcomers to Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) and thought-provoking for experienced academics. Using CDST as a metatheory and Conversation Analysis as a methodology, it expands upon the claim that language is a complex adaptive system, to propose that human spoken interaction, a second underlying system, is also a complex adaptive system.

• DedicationsList of Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsOverview1. Introduction to Human Spoken Interaction as a Complex Adaptive System2. L2 Interaction: Word Searches, Development and CDST3. Mirroring Methodology4. Patterns of Word Search Sequences at the Group Level5. Longitudinal Changes in Word Search Sequences6. Seeing Human Spoken Interaction as a Complex Adaptive System7. Conclusions and ImplicationsAppendix 1: Recording of ParticipantsAppendix 2: Transcription ConventionsReferencesIndex