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The University of Southampton
Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research

CANCELLED L2 Classroom Interactional Competence and Teacher Development Seminar

Time:
16:00 - 17:30
Date:
3 February 2016
Venue:
Lecture Theatre C Building 65 Avenue Campus SO17 1BF

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Dr Ying Zheng at Y.Zheng@southampton.ac.uk .

Event details

Part of the annual seminar series for the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research (CLLEAR).

In this talk, I offer an initial conceptualisation of Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC), defined as ‘teachers’ and learners’ ability to use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning’ (Walsh, 2013, 124). Adopting a sociocultural perspective on learning and using constructs from this theoretical perspective, I present a number of features of CIC and consider how an understanding of the construct can lead to more dialogic, engaged learning environments.

In classroom settings, there are many factors which combine to produce interaction which is conducive to learning. CIC encompasses the less easily definable - yet no less important - features of classroom interaction which can make the teaching/learning process more or less effective. CIC is concerned to account for learning-oriented interaction by considering the interplay between complex phenomena which include roles of teachers and learners, their expectations and goals; the relationship between language use and teaching methodology; and the interplay between teacher and learner language.

In the data, there are a number of ways in which CIC manifests itself. Firstly, and from a teacher’s perspective, a teacher who demonstrates CIC uses language which is both convergent to the pedagogic goal of the moment and which is appropriate to the learners. Secondly, CIC facilitates ‘space for learning’ (Walsh and Li, 2012), where learners are given adequate space to participate in the discourse, to contribute to the class conversation and to receive feedback on their contributions. Thirdly, CIC entails teachers being able to shape learner contributions by scaffolding, paraphrasing, re-iterating and so on.

We’ll be looking at a number of data extracts to identify instances of CIC and evaluating its significance from both a teaching/learning and teacher education perspective. We’ll also consider the implications of this research for materials development, assessment and curriculum design. In the second part of the talk, we’ll be looking at ways of promoting reflective practices which help teachers to develop their interactional competence.

Speaker information

Prof Steve Walsh , Newcastle University. Steve Walsh is Professor and Head of Applied Linguistics in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK. He has been involved in English Language Teaching for more than 30 years in a range of overseas contexts. His research interests include classroom discourse, teacher development and second language teacher education.

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