Interruption in advanced learner French: Issues of pragmatic discrimination

This exploratory study focuses on interruption as a feature of conversational management in multi-participant talk in advanced L2 French, based on a comparison with L1 French and English. It has two overall objectives: to consider pragmatic adaptations in L2 French from the point of view of interactional pressures, and to assess cross-cultural differences in the management of talk from the standpoint of learners. It is thus at the interface between interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics research. The analysis highlights tensions between pragmatic and processing demands in the learner data, resulting in limited pragmatic discrimination, differential adaptations to native French practices and possible stereotyping.