A Longitudinal Case Study of L2 Interactional Competence Development in the ELT Classroom: Teachability and Learnability of L2 Interactional Practices

Abstract

{en} This study presents insights into L2 interactional competence (IC) development in an English language teaching (ELT) classroom. The study context is an Oral Communication Skills course restructured to deliver L2 IC instruction through (i) lectures on conversation analysis (CA) findings on L2 IC; (ii) video-recorded conversational tasks; (iii) students’ self-evaluation of their own recordings; and (iv) end-of-semester L2 IC assessment tasks. Given the continuum of the activities throughout the semester, the CA-informed L2 IC instruction also constituted a longitudinal tracking mechanism convenient for the use of longitudinal and multimodal CA as a research methodology. The findings show that a semester-long conversation analysis (CA)-informed L2 IC instruction created opportunities for L2 development. Based on the examination of the video-recorded and textual datasets, the study reports on one L2 learner's self-identification of his improvable turn-taking (i.e., intrusive overlaps) and sequencing (lack of closings) practices after examining his own video recordings. Following the learner's self-identification, the interactional troubles that were negatively evaluated by the learner were also closely examined using multimodal CA, and the findings aligned with the learner's own analysis. While this alignment is framed as evidence for the learner's emergent understanding of the course content, the longitudinal tracking across the semester further helped document the L2 IC development, particularly of the previously negatively evaluated practices. The findings provide implications for L2 IC teaching and development in ELT classrooms and bring news insights into the teachability and learnability of CA research on L2 IC.