Assessments in a Korean Radio show for Korean speakers of English

There has been significant research in the organisation of radio shows and the power of radio hosts, mainly focusing in monolingual environments. Recent research in conversation analysis and interaction analysis has focused their attention to organisation of interactions among non native speakers (Gardner and Wagner, 2005). This paper continues this research  by examining the organization of talk within a radio show broadcasting in Korea aimed at offering opportunities to Korean speakers for practice in speaking English and improving fluency in English as a second language. The paper focuses on examining the structure and types of positive assessments and compliments initiated by the two native speaker radio hosts and aimed at the NNS callers. The theory of conversation analysis will be employed to examine the details of assessment, which is a popular theory in the study of naturally occurring interaction and aims at investigating the methods and procedures participants use in talk to produce their behaviour and interpret other people’s behaviour. The nature of positive assessments will be discussed, especially in relation to earlier research (Pomerantz, 1984) and how they fit within the context and pedagogical purposes of the radio show. The paper will examine the placement of these assessments within the turn and the  sequence, the second language speakers' responses and their function  as a transition to eliciting further talk from second language speakers. Gardner, R and J. Wagner, 2005. Second Language conversations: London: Continuum. Pomerantz, Anita M. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessment: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structure of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.