Les processus inférentiels dans l’interaction multimodale en L2

While published research on the role of the body in multimodal didactic discourse is growing at a fast pace, as shown by the numerous recent studies on the subject (Aden, 2017 ; Azaoui, 2015 ; Sime, 2001, 2008 ; Tellier, 2014, 2016), research on the multimodal nature of learner-learner interactions in a second language (L2) remains more confidential than that on interactions between teacher and learner(s) or between native speaker(s) and learner(s) (Kurhila, 2006). In addition, few studies have been published to date on the use of non-verbal resources in learner-learner exchanges (Gullberg, 2010). As a result, our knowledge of the types of interactional resources involved in these exchanges and of the way they are used is still limited. This is particularly true of interactional resources other than the words uttered by interactants. Interacting results from a complex cognitive process (McNeill, 2005 ; Kendon, 2004) which combines verbal resources as well as vocal and visual ones (postures, facial expressions and gestures, cf. “ressources posturo-mimo-gestuelles” for Cosnier, 1985). We investigate the impact of the visual resources in face-to-face L2 learner exchanges so as to better understand their role in learner-learner interactions, as well as the way they are interpreted by the co-speakers through the inferential processes in play. It is only thanks to these pragmatic inferential processes, which are instrumental in the interpretation of contextual elements (cf. Gumperz 1989), be they intra-textual or extra-textual, that co-speakers can truly access the speaker’s intended meaning. Gestures and more generally visual resources trigger inferential processes that make it possible to reconstruct the meaning of utterances, even more so when the latter are difficult to put into words. In the case of ambiguous, erroneous or incomplete utterances, coverbal gestures, i.e., gestures produced at the same time as speech acts (McNeill, 1992, 2005 ; Goldin-Meadow, 2003), can generate inferential work for the co-speakers and facilitate access to the speaker’s intended meaning (Tellier, 2014). The multimodal nature of interpersonal communication is claimed to be all the more perceptible in exchanges between L2 learners because of the deficits in their L2 system (David, 2017) : a number of studies (Gullberg, 1998 ; Hadar et al., 2001 ; Nobe, 2001 ; Yoshioka, 2005) show that the use of gestures is more prevalent during exchanges in L2 than in L1, in particular the use of deictic gestures (Sherman & Nicoladis, 2004). The exploratory empirical study presented in this paper aims to shed light on the role of visual resources for a given speaker in interactions between learners of L2 English, but also on the way these resources are interpreted by the co-speakers, who engage in inferential processes to gain access to the intended meaning. Our work is based on a corpus of face-to-face oral interactions between learners of L2 English in tertiary education. Our analysis highlights the essential role of inferential processes in the interpretation of visual resources in three different patterns : learners of L2 English tend to make inferences based on (1) visual resources used during word searches, (2) visual resources used in turn management, and (3) visual resources used as substitutes for verbal elements. Our results show that inferences based on visual resources are related to both the speaker’s communicative intent and the management of speech turns. Our study also sheds light on the multiple functions that a single visual resource can take on in a given context and leads us to advocate language classes with specific training in interpreting and resorting to visual resources as “inferrable” clues which are specific to a given geographical and linguistic area.