Self-Repairs By L2 Speakers In Real Communication Context

Language errors have long been a research focus among second language (L2) scholars as many would agree that these errors are indicators that the learners are making progress in learning their target language. In oral L2 communication, repairs on any erroneous utterances could be initiated by the speakers themselves or the interlocutors. Known as self-repairs and other-initiated repairs respectively, they are usually intended for clarity of the conveyed message. Although examining both types of repairs  could offer a more holistic view of interactional dynamics, the current study focused only of self-repairs made by speakers of job interviews where the current study was localised. This is because, in high-stake interactions such as job interviews, other-initiated repairs hardly occur since L2 speakers would be more concerned of their own language use rather than repairing others’ utterances. The data were obtained from observations made on oral interactions between 19 candidates and eight interview panellists of academic staff recruitment interviews at one public university in the east coast of Malaysia. The oral data were transcribed and analysed using Nvivo software (version 12) to identify the types of self-repairs made by the candidates based on Kormos, Levelt and van Hest’s conceptualization of self-repair. The findings showed that Appropriateness is the candidates’ greatest concern reflected through Message Replacement, Insertion Repair and Abandonment with a total percentage of 37.1%. This is followed by linguistic accuracy involving Error Repairs and Back-to-error Repairs which recorded 17.2% and 15.8%, respectively. Information accuracy was also emphasized by the candidates through Message Replacement and Fact Repair which occurred at 11.4% and 12.7% respectively. Finally, repeating the same information as part of Information Repair was recorded at 5.8%; the same percentage of Appropriateness-Abandonment. Since all respondents were Malaysian graduates who were exposed to English language teaching in Malaysia both at school and tertiary levels, the  occurrences of Back-to-error Repairs indicate the need for researchers and teachers’ involvement in assisting L2 learners to deal with their erroneous L2 expressions.