Conversational management and pragmatic discrimination in foreign talk: overlap in advanced L2 French

This exploratory study focuses on overlapping talk as a feature of conversational management in multi-participant talk in advanced learner (L2) French, in relation to native (L1) French and English. Objectives are twofold: to assess cross-cultural differences in the management of talk from the standpoint of learners, and to assess pragmatic adaptations to L1 French practices in advanced L2 French. Like previous studies of other interactional features in the same data (interruption with or without overlap and the discourse particle mais [but] as a turn-taking device), it points to differences in practice in L1 and L2 French, and highlights the limiting impact of processing demands on pragmatic discrimination in L2 French, resulting in differential adaptations to native French practices and a possible perpetuation of a-priori cultural thinking.