Developing EFL Learners’ Interactional Competence through Discursive Practice: A Longitudinal Classroom Study Using Mixed Methods (Published)
Although studies on L2 IC through discursive practice have gained prominence, little is known about pedagogical steps to develop IC (Hall, et al., 2011; van Compernolle, 2015; Young, 2009, 2011, 2019), especially in the language classroom. More recently, Salaberry and Kunitz (2019) claim that “only a few attempts have been made to bridge the gap between research and practice with regard to the teaching of IC in the L2 classroom” (p. 1). Moreover, very few longitudinal studies were conducted to investigate how learners adapt interactional resources they developed with participants to a new context in the L2 classroom (Pekarek Doehler, Wagner, & Gonzalez-Martinez, 2018, Young, 2009). Through a mixed methods analyses, including recordings, interviews, self-evaluation, and performance evaluation of speaking data, this study delineates how Japanese university students in an EFL classroom setting went through three stages (peripheral participation, active participation, full participation) to develop their IC. Consequently, this study identified four pedagogical steps to implement IC in the L2 curriculum.
Keywords: Communication Strategies, discursive practice, interactional competence, interactional resources, longitudinal study
College Students’ Use of Metadiscourse across Two Languages: A Case of College Students at the College of Basic Education, Kuwait (Published)
This study investigates college students’ use of metadiscoursal markers across two languages: Arabic and English. It is a corpus-based study of 25 female college students’ essays of approximately 500 running words from each student. The results reveal that in both languages students have frequently used more interactive resources than interactional resources. It also reveals that there are many differences of the use of metadiscoursal markers between the English and Arabic corpora. The findings of this study suggest some teaching implications which include the incorporation of metadiscoursal markers into the school curriculum at all levels. Teachers should raise the awareness of their students of the typical features of metadiscoursal markers, which are associated with both the English and Arabic languages, so that the students may establish a stronger interaction with their informational content and readers, as well as teachers becoming more sensitive to, and knowledgeable about, metadiscoursal markers and their use in different discourse communities and cultures.
Keywords: College students, Metadiscourse, corpus-based analysis, interactional resources, interactive resources