Documenting language play of FLES students from sociocultural perspectives: Exploring its impact on L2 development

This dissertation documented the language play (LP) of Japanese FLES students to explore its role in L2 development in classroom settings from sociocultural perspectives. The students' LP was examined in a longitudinal observation study inspired by and designed based on Vygotsky's Genetic Method and Leontiev's Activity Theory.;Ninety students in two age groups were observed for four months during Spring 2002. Their daily Japanese lessons were recorded regularly to collect LP examples in classroom settings. The students' Japanese language abilities were measured by a vocabulary test and teacher ratings. The older students also responded to attitudinal and self-assessment questionnaires. In addition, ten focus students were selected and interviewed to explore their attitudes toward LP and to supplement LP examples. LP examples were investigated according to several criteria based on those proposed by Broner and Tarone (2001).;The classroom and oral interview recordings provided evidence that the participating students, despite their limited L2 abilities, frequently engaged in various types of LP. Their LP could not easily be categorized according to the criteria proposed in the literature: It was predominantly private, focusing on form rather than on meaning, however, it was frequently accompanied by laughter. Younger students tended to play at the word level, while older students seemed to prefer phrase-level LP. Learning tasks that encouraged students' creativity seemed to promote more LP. The focus students reported that the motive for their LP behavior was their desire to be creative, which seemed to push them to produce L2 beyond their current level. It was, however, not yet clear whether or how such LP behavior facilitated L2 development although there was evidence that LP took place within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).;The complexity of LP behavior revealed in the present study implies that SLA researchers may need to reconsider how to classify different types of LP. The study also illustrated that various factors at different levels interact with each other to generate LP and that it is desirable to take a holistic approach in future LP research. The FLES profession is recommended to take new perspectives on students' LP behavior in classroom settings.