Tutoring as an embodied activity: How speech, gaze and body orientation are coordinated to conduct ESL tutorial business

This study examines ESL tutoring openings and closings. The data come from real-time dialogues involving tutors who are native speakers of American English and students who are in the process of improving their communication skills in English. Drawing on the method of conversation analysis, the study explores on a turn-by-turn basis the coordination of speech, gaze, and body orientation during the course of the participants’ tutorial interaction. Specifically, it analyzes the extent to which participants’ vocal and nonvocal actions contribute to the co-construction of ESL tutorial discourse as a collaborative activity. The study has implications for the native–nonnative dichotomy in second language discourse and for the notion of interactional asymmetry.