Repair

Repair is the mechanism through which participants in conversation deal with problems of speaking, hearing, and understanding. It was first systematically described by Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks (1977) as a core organisation of Conversation Analysis.

Repair is not limited to correcting errors; it covers any instance where the flow of conversation is interrupted to address a "trouble source": mishearing, misunderstanding, misspelling, word-finding difficulty, or ambiguity.

Taxonomy

Repair is classified along two dimensions: who initiates and who carries out the repair.

Type	Description	Example
Self-initiated self-repair	Speaker identifies and fixes their own trouble	"I went to the... no, the library"
Other-initiated self-repair	Listener signals trouble; speaker fixes it	A: "I saw him at the bank." B: "The bank?" A: "The river bank, I mean."
Self-initiated other-repair	Speaker signals they need help	"What's the word for...?" (listener supplies it)
Other-initiated other-repair	Listener identifies and corrects the trouble	A: "It was on Thursday." B: "Wednesday, actually."

Preference Organisation

There is a clear preference hierarchy in conversation (Schegloff, Jefferson & Sacks, 1977):

1. Self-initiated self-repair is overwhelmingly preferred: speakers are given opportunities to fix their own trouble before others intervene
2. Other-initiated self-repair is next: listeners signal trouble but let the speaker fix it
3. Other-initiated other-repair (outright correction) is dispreferred because it threatens Face and occurs mainly in institutional settings (classrooms, courtrooms)

This preference organisation explains why explicit correction feels socially marked in casual conversation but is normalised in classroom discourse.

Repair Initiators

Common ways of signalling that repair is needed:

Initiator	Function	Example
Open-class initiators	Signal general trouble	"Huh?", "What?", "Sorry?"
Partial repeat	Locate specific trouble	"The bank?"
Wh-question	Request specific information	"You went where?"
Candidate understanding	Offer interpretation for confirmation	"You mean the one near the station?"
Non-verbal	Signal confusion	Furrowed brow, puzzled expression

Repair in L2 Interaction

In L2 communication, repair is especially frequent and serves different functions:

• Vocabulary gaps trigger self-initiated other-repair ("How do you say...?"), which connects to Negotiation of Meaning
• Pronunciation problems trigger other-initiated repair because listeners signal non-understanding
• Grammar errors may or may not be repaired depending on whether they cause comprehension problems
• L2 speakers initiate more repair than L1 speakers, and repair sequences tend to be longer

Connection to Classroom Practice

Repair in conversation maps onto Corrective Feedback in the classroom, but with important differences:

• In conversation, self-repair is preferred; in classrooms, teachers routinely perform other-repair (correction)
• Classroom correction is institutionally sanctioned and face-threat is reduced (but not eliminated)
• Effective Corrective Feedback techniques (recasts, elicitation, prompts) can be understood as different repair strategies adapted for pedagogic purposes
• Encouraging self-repair and peer-repair in class develops learner autonomy and mirrors natural conversation patterns