Reviewed by Anastassia Zabrodskaja, Tallinn University

The interactions between native (NS) and nonnative speakers (NNS) of Finnish in a range of authentic institutional and everyday situations are explored in this volume by Salla Kurhila. In the introductory chapter (1–18), K outlines the aims and methods of her study and  introduces her primary goals: (i) to investigate linguistically asymmetric interactions between NSs and NNSs, and (ii) to identify any emerging problems and determine their relationship to the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Following classical organizational principles of conversation analysis (CA), K offers new insights to the language-in-interaction between NSs and NNSs.

In Ch. 2, ‘Repair organisation as a means to construct understanding’ (19–30), K discusses repair organization, which is a resource for the interactants to address a variety of problems in conversation. Repair initiation can be seen as a turn-holding device for both NSs and NNSs.

Ch. 3 ‘Other-correction’ (31–90), examines grammatical modifications of prior speaker’s turns made by NSs; specifically, instances in which the NS corrects a linguistic detail, most often a grammatical morpheme, in the previous NNS’s sentence. Usually, the NS produces an alternative version of the word or phrase the NNS had used. These corrections are often managed without emphasis.

Ch. 4 ‘Word search’ (91–152), deals with cases in which the speaker (usually the NNS) focuses on the talk-in-progress. K starts with a brief introduction to previous CA research on word searches, which are found in various types of interaction in addition to NNS data. Here, K presents lexical and grammatical searches from her collection of seventy-eight interactionally-oriented word searches.

In Ch. 5, ‘Candidate understandings’ (153–218), K focuses on turns in which the speaker checks his (or her) understanding of some stretch of prior talk. There are three main types of turn-initial elements: (i) particles that display regonition, understanding, or newsworthiness of the prior talk; (ii) conclusive particles or question utterances; and (iii) completion of a turn (or a proposition) for the other speaker.

K completes the book with Ch. 6 ‘Concluding discussion’ (219–32), a summary of her data of NS-NNS interactions and a discussion of the implications for both SLA and CA research.

This study is an extensive and well-organized linguistic account that will serve as a helpful reference to those interested in NS-NNS interactions and CA.