1st Edition
Developing Interactional Competence at the Workplace Learning English as a Foreign Language on the Shop Floor
What is it about social interaction at the workplace that spurs interactional competence development? This book explores the answers to this question by analyzing the development of interactional competence by two Vietnamese hotel staff members, one novice and one experienced, as they interact with international guests in English in Vietnam.
Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) in a longitudinal design, Nguyen and Malabarba trace the learners’ observable changes in interactional practices in guest-escorting walks over time. In doing so, they uncover the interaction-endogenous impetuses that may have led to these changes and address three fundamental questions in second language acquisition research: what is learned, how it is learned, and why it is learned. In seven chapters, the book offers an illuminating discussion of how competence has been conceptualized in EMCA and a rich analysis of how individuals’ changes in interactional conduct take place locally and longitudinally.
With an in-depth discussion of theoretical issues as well as a fine-grained empirical analysis, this book appeals to researchers, students, and practitioners interested in social perspectives on second language learning, longitudinal EMCA, the development of interactional competence at the workplace, and guest-host interaction in hospitality.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Conversation Analytic Transcription Notations
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Interactional Competence and Its Development
Chapter 2: The Hotel Guest-Escorting Walk as A Speech-Exchange System
Chapter 3: Evolving From Interactional Troubles
Chapter 4: Harvesting Interactional Materials from Co-Participants’ Turns
Chapter 5: Contingently Assembling Resources Afforded by Interactional Infrastructure
Chapter 6: Optimizing Interactional Practices Through Recurrent Participation
Chapter 7: Discussion
References
Index
Biography
Hanh thi Nguyen is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English and Applied Linguistics at Hawaii Pacific University, USA.
Taiane Malabarba is a postdoc researcher and Lecturer in Second Language Acquisition and Social Interaction in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Potsdam, Germany.
