Teaching towards competent oral communication skills in a second language
What is it about?
How to teach socially and culturally appropriate oral communication in context is explored studying live interactions between second language students. Interventions by the instructor focused on observations of real student conversations and mapped out functional categories of discourse. These categories formed the starting point for a course framework that supported reflection and discussion on building pragmatic competence in various communicative situations.
Why is it important?
Teaching appropriate oral communication to second language learners in real-time is difficult. It is usually done off-the-cuff with whatever an instructor notices in the moment. However, this can put language learners on the spot and usually does not provide instructors with enough traction to develop a systematic approach. By providing a metacognitive framework learners acquire the tools they need to improve their competence.