CLIC Research Projects

Developing and Assessing Interactional Competence: Beginning Level

 
Meng Yeh & Silvia Kunitz

The construct of Interactional Competence (IC) has recently gained more attention in the field of second language acquisition. Being interactionally competent in a second language means being able to engage in a conversation and interact actively with interlocutors. Most of the studies conducted so far have aimed to produce theoretical and operational definitions of IC by exploring the features and functions of IC and the role of conversational partners in various everyday and institutional settings. Little attention has been paid to pedagogical approaches that attempt to develop and assess IC in L2 classrooms.

Therefore, the current study aims to move the focus onto the classroom, by designing and implementing an IC instructional component for the first-semester Chinese language course. The research question addressed by this study is the following: Can IC instruction enhance beginning students’ IC? The study will compare two groups of students enrolled in the first-semester Chinese language courses (CHIN 141). One group of students will receive IC instruction, whereas the other one will be exposed to the traditional type of first-semester language instruction with no explicit pedagogical focus on IC. The students in both groups will have two one-on-one conversations with Chinese native speakers during the Fall 2015 semester.