Speaker
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
This presentation reports preliminary findings from a larger-scale study, which investigates effective pedagogy for developing interactional competence in Japanese university English classrooms. Preliminary classroom implementation suggests that explicit instruction followed by practice in stance-negotiation enhances learners’ ability to produce relevant responses to various perspectives. However, the learners showed difficulties in deeply engaging with the groupmate’s perspectives. The presentation concludes by outlining pedagogical implications for strengthening learners’ knowledge and use of interactional resources in stance-negotiation during English-medium discussions.
Abstract section 1: Relevance
In today’s English functions as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts, communication prioritizes mutual understanding and explicitness (Mauranen, 2012). Therefore, university English education must address these communicative demands by promoting effective interactional strategies (Chan, 2021; Kirkpatrick, 2010). Central to ELF communication is interactional competence, or the “co-construction of a ‘shared internal context” (Kramsch, 1986, p. 367). Interactional competence requires participants to deploy interactional resources effectively (Young, 2019), including articulating perspectives and responding appropriately to prior turns. However, learners may omit adjacency pairs or produce responses misaligned with preceding turns (Chiba Mereu, 2023), indicating difficulties with second pair-part production (Schegloff, 2007).
Abstract section 5: References
This presentation reports preliminary findings from a larger-scale study, which investigates effective pedagogy for developing interactional competence in Japanese university English classrooms. Preliminary classroom implementation suggests that awareness-raising tasks and explicit instruction, followed by practice in stance negotiation, enhance learners’ ability to produce relevant responses to various perspectives. However, despite these positive results in individual responses, learners seem to experience difficulty sustaining multi-turn interaction, which may have limited opportunities for deeper engagement with the topic. The presentation concludes by outlining pedagogical implications for strengthening learners’ knowledge and effective use of interactional resources in stance negotiation during English-medium discussions.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
Adopting a conversation analytic approach, the study analyzes approximately two hours of video-recorded group discussions conducted at a university in Japan. Before data collection, participants completed awareness-raising tasks and explicit instruction focusing on stance expression and sequencing. These interventions were followed by practice opportunities to enhance the use of these pragmalinguistic resources. The recorded discussions were transcribed, and instances of stance-negotiation were identified and examined within this mini-corpus.
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
This L2 learners’ difficulties in co-constructing meaning are potentially due to limited pragmalinguistic resources and practice opportunities. Therefore, explicit instruction and practice opportunities would be essential to develop interactional competence to engage in coherent, meaning co-construction. The research questions are: (1) How do Japanese university students engage in stance-negotiation during classroom discussion? and (2) How can university English education better support the development of stance-negotiation skills as interactional resources?
| Title | Developing Interactional Competence: Stance-Negotiation |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | College and university education |