Abstract
Repair work is recognised as an valuable component of effective teaching and learning in the foreign language classroom. The primary objective of this study is to observe and understand how repair work is carried out in an EFL classroom in a Japanese setting. In this paper, a total of eight extracts from one English language lesson are analysed based upon four patterns of repair work. It is revealed that this distinction of repair work, though useful and relevant, is not sufficient for a comprehensive explanation of the present EFL classroom. In order to make a more detailed sequential analysis of repair work, therefore, the perspective of language functions is proposed. This new description of repair work is found particularly relevant to detecting what is missing in the L2 classroom and enhancing teachers' awareness of teacher-student interactions.
