Cover not available
Part of
Speaking in a Second Language
Edited by Rosa Alonso Alonso
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 17] 2018
► pp. 27–48

Chapter 2
Speaking, interactional competencies, and mediated action

| Carnegie Mellon University

This chapter focuses on the development of interactional competence from a Vygotskian perspective. It is argued that interactional competence is a situated activity in which speakers draw on their historically rooted understanding of contextually appropriate communicative resources in order to create a shared conceptual space for interaction. One dimension of this shared conceptual space is the degree of social distance and power, as created through the use of such register features as second-person pronouns in European languages (e.g., French tu and vous). To show how this aspect of register, and therefore interactional competence, can develop in pedagogical context, I draw on recent studies of concept-based pragmatics instruction. Pedagogical implications and future research directions are presented in concluding.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Conceptual background
    • Acquiring “speaking”: Abstractness vs. situatedness
    • Dimensions of IC
    • IC and mediated action
  • Developing IC through concept-based pragmatics instruction
    • Background
    • Orientation, execution, control
      • Exemplar 1. van Compernolle (2014a)
      • Exemplar 2. van Compernolle & Henery (2014)
      • Exemplar 3. van Compernolle, Gomez-Laich, & Weber (2016)
  • IC as the source and driver of development
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 12 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.17.02com
References
Davydov, V. V.
(2004) Problems of developmental instruction: A theoretical and experimental psychological study (Trans. P. Moxay). Moscow: Akademyia Press.Google Scholar
Di Pietro, R. J.
(1987) Strategic interaction: Learning languages through scenarios. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gal’perin, P. I.
(1989) Organization of mental activity and the effectiveness of learning. Soviet Psychology, 27, 65–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1992) Stage-by-stage formation as a method of psychological investigation. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 30, 60–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. K.
(1993) The role of oral practices in the accomplishment of our everyday lives: The sociocultural dimension of interaction with implications for the learning of another language. Applied Linguistics, 14, 145–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. K., Hellermann, J., & Pekarek Doehler, S.
(Eds.) (2011) L2 interactional competence and development. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
John-Steiner, V. P.
(2007) Vygotsky on thinking and speaking. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 136–152). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, B., & Kiesling, S. F.
(2008) Indexicality and experience: Exploring the meaning of /aw/-monophthongization in Pittsburg. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12, 5–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lantolf, J. P., & Poehner, M. E.
(2014) Sociocultural theory and the pedagogical imperative in L2 education, New York, NY: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lantolf, J. P., & Thorne, S. L.
(2006) Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mehan, H.
(1982) The structure of classroom events and their consequences for student performance. In P. Gilmore & A. A. Glatthorn (Eds.), Children in and out of school: Ethnography and education (pp. 59–87). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Negueruela, E.
(2003) A sociocultural approach to teaching and researching second language: Systemic-theoretical instruction and second language development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Norton, B.
(2000) Identity and language learning: Social processes and educational practice. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Ortega, L.
(2011) SLA after the social turn: Where cognitivism and its alternatives stand. In D. Atkinson (Ed.), Alternative approaches to second language acquisition (pp. 167–180). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Paradis, M.
(2009) Declarative and procedural determinants of second languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poehner, M. E.
(2008) Dynamic assessment: A Vygotskian approach to understanding and promoting second language development. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rine, E. F.
(2009) Development in dialogic teaching skills: A micro-analytic case study of a pre-service ITA. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Silverstein, M.
(2003) Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language and Communication, 23, 193–229 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Compernolle, R. A.
(2011) Responding to questions and L2 learner interactional competence during language proficiency interviews: A microanalytic study with pedagogical implications. In J. K. Hall, J. Hellermann, & S. Pekarek Doehler (Eds.), L2 interactional competence and development. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013a) Interactional competence and the dynamic assessment of L2 pragmatic abilities. In S. Ross & G. Kasper (Eds.), Assessing second language pragmatics (pp. 327–353). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b) Concept appropriation and the emergence of L2 sociostylistic variation. Language Teaching Research, 17, 343–362. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014a) Sociocultural theory and L2 instructional pragmatics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014b) Profiling second language sociolinguistic development through dynamically administered strategic interaction scenarios. Language and Communication, 37, 86–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015a) Interaction and second language development: A Vygotskian perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015b) The emergence of sociolinguistic competence in L2 classroom interaction. In N. Markee (Ed.), Handbook of classroom discourse and interaction (pp. 265–280). London: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
In press). Focus on meaning and form: A Vygotskian perspective on task and pragmatic development in dynamic strategic interaction scenarios. In M. Ahmadian & M. P. G. Mayo eds Recent trends in task-based language learning and teaching Berlin Mouton de Gruyter
van Compernolle, R. A., & Henery, A.
(2014) Instructed concept appropriation and L2 pragmatic development in the classroom. Language Learning, 64, 549–578. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Compernolle, R. A., Gomez-Laich, M. P., & Weber, A.
(2016) Teaching L2 Spanish sociopragmatics through concepts: A classroom-based study. Modern Language Journal, 100, 341–361. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S.
(1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
(1986) Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J. V.
(1994) The primacy of mediated action in sociocultural studies. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1, 202–208.Google Scholar
(2007) Mediation. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 178–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Young, R. F.
(2000) Interactional competence: Challenges for validity. Paper presented at a joint symposium on ‘Interdisciplinary Interfaces with Language Testing’. Annual meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and the Language Testing Research Colloquium, March 11, 2000, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
(2011) Interactional competence in language learning, teaching, and testing. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 426–443). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

WU, JINGXUAN & CARSTEN ROEVER
2021. Proficiency and Preference Organization in Second Language Mandarin Chinese Refusals. The Modern Language Journal 105:4 ► pp. 897 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.