Interactional Competence Research Articles

Defining competence profiles in obstetrics and gynecology using the modified requirement tracking questionnaire

BackgroundData about the competencies needed for physicians in obstetrics and gynecology (O&G) is currently insufficient. The aim of this study is to define the competence profile needed in this sector for daily professional activity, in order to account for these criteria in future recruitment.MethodsThe modified requirement-tracking questionnaire (R-track) was sent to 307 physicians working in the field of O&G with different training levels and practice locations. The R-track is designed to assess professional competence profiles and contains 66 items covering the following eight competence areas: “Mental abilities”, “Social sensibility”, “Psychomotor and multitasking abilities”, “Solutions orientation”, “Social interactive competences”, “Personality traits”, “Verbal competences” and “Resistance capacity”. The mean scores of single items and competence areas were calculated. Results were compared between gender, training level, and place of practice.ResultsThe participation rate was 65.5%, with 201 physicians returning the questionnaire. In this sample, 50.2% of them were in training and 49.8% were practicing O&G specialists. The proportion of physicians working in a hospital setting was 64.7% while 30.3% worked in private practice. The competence areas “Social sensibility” and “Psychomotor & multitasking abilities” appear to be the most important for daily professional activity. At the item level, “Stress resistance”, followed by “Workload management” and “Tactfulness” were considered as the most valuable characteristics. Differences between gender, level of training, and place of practice were not significant.ConclusionThe identified competence profile could serve as a basis for developing a new method of O&G residency selection. In addition, such a profile could help medical students to decide on a professional specialization at a very early stage by comparing their personal competence profile with the one in the field or with their mentors.

Interactional Practices and Normative Expectations in EFL Classrooms: A Conversation Analysis Approach to Turn-Taking

This study explores the interactional practices and normative expectations of teachers and students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, with a focus on turn-taking and conversational dynamics. Addressing a gap in understanding how institutional norms shape classroom interactions, the research employs Conversation Analysis (CA) as its methodological framework, emphasizing the systematic organization of talk-in-interaction. Data were collected from two recorded classroom sessions, including one conducted at the American Language Center in Rabat, Morocco, and another source from a publicly available YouTube video. The transcriptions, adhering to Jefferson’s (1988) system, were analyzed to uncover patterns of turn-taking, repair initiators, and backchanneling in teacher-student exchanges. The findings reveal that teachers use strategies such as other-initiated self-repair, scaffolding, and missing units to guide student contributions while managing conversational flow. Additionally, students demonstrated clear expectations for feedback, often signaled through transition relevance places. These practices underline the collaborative nature of EFL classroom interactions and the critical role of teachers in fostering language learning. The study highlights the pedagogical value of interactional competence and offers insights for improving teacher training and classroom engagement strategies.

Characteristics of Creativity as a Neuropsychological Manifestation of Personality in the Professional Activity of a Teacher

<p dir="ltr"><span>The article presents the analysis of creativity improvement as a determinant of the creative potential of a higher education institution teacher. Creative competence is one of the most important life resources that ensure the success of the professional activity of a modern teacher. The essence of the concept of creativity from the perspective of neuroscience is revealed, specifically of the neuropsychological approach. It is determined that creativity is an integrative formation, which includes a set of structural components that determine creative nature of human activity. Particular attention is paid to the importance of realisation of the creative potential of the teacher’s personality, and the emphasis is put on the importance of lack of over-regulation of the environment in the educational organisation, observance of democratic relations among the teaching staff and a positive example to follow a creative personality in order to develop creativity. Pedagogical creativity is a certain mental and social readiness of the individual, which allows changing the situation so that the teacher and the student can interact effectively in joint activities. Pedagogical creativity presupposes that the teacher has a high level of competence in interpersonal perception, interpersonal communication, and interpersonal interaction. Development of creative competence and creative individuality of the teacher contribute to the increase of their professional competence and professionalism in general.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div>

RAISING AWARENESS ON CLASSROOM INTERACTION COMPETENCE THROUGH SETT

This case study aimed at raising teacher awareness of classroom interactional competence regarding pedagogical goals and interactional features in Walsh’s (2003) Self Evaluation Teacher Talk (SETT) framework. To this end, the data were obtained from an in-service EFL teacher’s video-recorded teaching in two main phases: 1) the teacher’s four hours of classes were analyzed to characterize the modes by the researchers, after which the teacher was informed about the modes and SETT framework in an interview, and 2) the teacher was self-reflected on his another four hours of teaching by characterizing the modes. The findings analyzed through content analysis revealed that the meetings were insightful in fostering teachers’ awareness of classroom interaction skills since the teacher performed a high level of accuracy in characterizing classroom modes and the deployment of related terminology. In addition, self-talk had a positive contribution to the reflection process, enabling a dialogue on troubles in classroom interaction and the teacher’s resistance with justification in dialogues signposted a need to highlight the value of dialogue besides teacher awareness.

Development of Interactional Competence in a Virtual Exchange Setting: Focus on Diversification of Participatory Actions

Virtual exchange (VE) projects create environments providing VE participants with L2 development opportunities. This study examines the affordances of VEs with a particular emphasis on how participants find opportunities for developing their interactional competences in video-mediated environments. The data comes from a VE Project organized among three universities based in Germany, Türkiye and Sweden. During the project timeline, the participants worked in teams through weekly meetings. The data comprises screen-recordings of video-mediated team exchange meetings and written final reflection papers. The screen-recorded data was analyzed via longitudinal Conversation Analysis (CA), while the reflection papers were examined to identify potential developmental phenomena. That is, one student claiming to have improved her interactional competence in the final reflection paper was identified as the focal participant. Retrospective tracking of this student’s entire video-mediated interactional history with her team-members during the VE project (8 hours across 3 months) revealed a diversification of her participatory actions over time manifested through changes in her involvement (i.e., becoming increasingly active) in the team interaction. Initially, she participated minimally with embodied or short responses solicited by the others, and remained mostly silent. However, in subsequent team exchanges, she not only displayed unsolicited contributions by elaborating and topic-shifting but also took an active role in the VE team meetings by opening tasks/conversations, sharing her stance towards various task-related proposals, and using mitigated disagreement practices for problem-solving about the collaborative team-product. Using longitudinal CA, this study brings evidence for a VE participant’s interactional competence development in terms of participatory actions during turn-entry moments in video-mediated interaction, through which she became a more active participant in the teamwork. By providing instances to document this change in her participatory actions, the study discusses to what extent VE settings can contribute to a participant’s L2 interactional competence.

An interactive role-based strategy to enhance EFL learners’ speaking performance

This qualitative case study explores educators’ competencies, group activities, roles group division, and students’ perceptions of roles-based engagement in interactive online discussions to enhance English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking skills. The study employs semi-structured interviews with 28 students and one educator, complemented by online observations of focus group discussions, field notes, and a review of relevant literature to collect data. The findings reveal that the educator demonstrated three core interaction competencies, which facilitated effective group activities. These activities supported speaking skills through peer grammar repetition and pronunciation correction, cognitive development through critical analysis and opinion confirmation, and social interaction through praising group accomplishments and problem-solving. The participants’ ability to recall and coordinate roles and responsibilities also enhanced their interactive skills. The results highlight that roles-based group division fosters a supportive and collaborative environment, encouraging active participation and improving EFL speaking performance. This study concludes by emphasizing the importance of structured group roles in promoting interactive discussions and recommends further research on role-based strategies, technology-assisted learning, and fluency-oriented speaking tasks in EFL settings.

Corrigendum to “Measuring sexual interaction competence in adolescents: A validation study of the Sexual Interaction and Relationship Questionnaire (SIRQ)” [Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 163 (2024) 107813

Corrigendum to “Measuring sexual interaction competence in adolescents: A validation study of the Sexual Interaction and Relationship Questionnaire (SIRQ)” [Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 163 (2024) 107813

Corrigendum to “Classroom interactional competence in an English medium instruction mathematics classroom: A creation of a technology-mediated translanguaging space” [Learning and Instruction 90 (2024) 101,849]

Corrigendum to “Classroom interactional competence in an English medium instruction mathematics classroom: A creation of a technology-mediated translanguaging space” [Learning and Instruction 90 (2024) 101,849]

Vuorovaikutuskompetenssin rooli videovälitteisessä yhteistoiminnassa

Video-mediated interaction has been increasingly studied during the past decades. Empirical research that uses qualitative methods and draws on recorded data from authentic situations (e.g., workplace meetings and online classrooms) has shown that these environments are very complex and present challenges (e.g., in turn-taking) but also provide unique affordances for organizing interaction. Most recent research has highlighted participants’ situated conduct (i.e., talk, embodied actions, use of digital resources) and interactional competence as key for the smooth unfolding of interaction and accomplishment of collaborative activities. More research is still needed to substantiate context-specific practices.

Practical English Test Performance and English Professional Interaction Competence of E-Business Majors in Jieyang Polytechnic

Practical English Test Performance and English Professional Interaction Competence of E-Business Majors in Jieyang Polytechnic

Indonesian EFL Learners’ Motivation: An Investigation into Online and Offline Learning in Islamic Higher Education

This study investigated the learning motivation of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at an Islamic Higher Education institution in Indonesia, comparing their motivation in both online and offline platforms. This study employed a survey methodology by using questionnaires to collect the data. The participant of the study were 76 students. The selected students were those who have experiences of attending both online and offline classes in order to compare their perspectives. The current study evaluates students' motives encompass factors such as readiness, interest, interaction, engagement and satisfaction across language skills namely speaking, listening, reading, writing, and grammar class. Responses from 76 students, together with their comments and suggestions, were used for data analysis. This study found that majority students are more motivated in offline classes than online ones for spoken language skills and grammar class. Meanwhile, for text-based skill such as reading and writing the students shows a nearly equal distribution between online and offline. One important thing in the teaching and learning process that students feel demotivated in online learning is the interaction aspect. Thus, it is recommended that lecturers improve their interaction competencies for running online classes.

КРИТЕРІЇ ТА РІВНІ СФОРМОВАНОСТІ ЕМОЦІЙНО-ЕТИЧНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ МАЙБУТНЬОГО ВЧИТЕЛЯ ПОЧАТКОВОЇ ШКОЛИ

The paper specifies that the emotional and ethical competence of a primary school teacher is the ability of an individual to be aware of his own sensations, feelings, emotions and needs, to manage his own emotional states, as well as to interact constructively and safely with the participants of the educational process on the basis of empathy, in compliance with moral and ethical norms and rules.Based on the analysis of the essence and content characteristics of the concept of «emotional-ethical competence of the individual», criteria and indicators of the formation of emotional-ethical competence of future primary school teachers (cognitive, motivational-value and activity) were developed. The cognitive criterion is characterized by the presence and completeness of knowledge of moral and ethical norms of professional activity, the ability to identify one’s own emotional states and the states of other people, the causes of emotional states and behavior; understanding of modern technologies and means of self-regulation, overcoming stress, aware and empathetic listening, non-violent and conflict-free communication. The motivational-value criterion determines the future teacher's attitude to moral and ethical norms as a component of professional activity, the need to develop emotional intelligence, a humanistic approach to communication and interaction with participants in the educational process. The activity criterion assumes the ability of the student of higher education to apply emotional and ethical competence in communication and pedagogical interaction. Three levels of formation of emotional and ethical competence of future primary school teachers are substantiated: high, medium and low.

Data from role plays and elicited conversations: What do they show about L2 interactional competence?

In research on second language (L2) interactional competence (IC), data elicitation is commonly done either through role plays or elicited conversation tasks. It is unclear, however, what aspects of IC these two methods make visible, where they elicit similar or different data and which research questions they are most suited to answer. In the current study we compare performances in role play tasks with those in elicited conversation tasks from 54 learners of L2 Mandarin Chinese and 12 native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Using conversation analysis to analyze learners’ performance, we found that role plays were highly suitable for making visible the sequential and linguistic tools interactants deploy for preference organization. Elicited conversation was useful for making topic management visible, including topic extension and topic shift. While role plays also included features of topic management and elicited conversations included features of preference organization, these did not occur with sufficient frequency and elaboration to allow defensible conclusions to be drawn. We suggest that role plays and elicited conversations can supplement each other to provide a well rounded picture of interactants’ IC.

Pre-service teachers' understanding of teaching L2 French interactional competence through TBLT: Insights from task design processes and post-implementation reflections

This paper reports on a university seminar for pre-service teachers (PST) of L2 French in which a conversation analytic concept of language use was combined with the methodology of task-based language teaching (TBLT) to teach L2 interactional competence (L2 IC). In the course, participants carried out a needs analysis, designed pedagogical tasks that focused on teaching L2 IC and trialed them in real classrooms before evaluating both their tasks' success and their own learning process. In a post-hoc study, data gathered from the course including pre-design comments, written design rationales, audio recordings of the group design meetings, oral and written feedback and post-implementation comments were analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis to find out in what respects the PST's cognition with regard to teaching L2 IC changed during the seminar. The results show that there were some dynamics in the PST's cognition, particularly regarding their view of learner factors in task accomplishment and the targeting of specific social actions. Other aspects of PST's cognition remained more stable as their initial beliefs were confirmed by the task design process.

Review of the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP)

The Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) is a computer-delivered test for English language proficiency, primarily used for Canadian immigration purposes. This review begins by contextualizing the test’s use as an immigration gatekeeping instrument, followed by an overview of its underlying construct and the four test components: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. We then appraise the test in terms of its accessibility, reliability, validity, authenticity, and impact. While we appreciate the “Canadian-ness” of the test, the user-friendly computer-based test delivery, and the accessible approach to sharing scoring criteria, we also identify several shortcomings regarding transparency in scoring, attention to interactional competence, and attention to research on test impact. We close with a brief commentary on the use of such tests for selecting and controlling immigrants.

The effect of instruction on the development of L2 interactional competence: Listener responses in Chinese as a second language

Listener responses (LRs) are utterances produced by non-primary speakers (e.g. oh, okay). It is an important component of L2 learners’ interactional competence (IC). Previous studies have indicated that learners develop their capacity of deploying LRs naturally through study abroad programs. However, it remains unknown whether LRs can be effectively learned through classroom instruction, yet it is a critical issue facing language educators and learners because classroom is the primary locus for L2 learning for those without study abroad opportunities. Taking up this issue, this study compares two groups of beginning-level L2 Chinese learners, a control group with regular instruction and an experimental group with extra IC instruction, where authentic materials from L1 speakers' talk were employed to teach specific interactional practices such as LR and repair. Each learner was asked to record two spontaneous conversations with an L1 speaker, one at midterm and one at the end of the semester. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study first identifies specific types of LRs used by beginning-level learners. Statistical analyses then reveal that the two groups’ development from midterm to semester end differs significantly only in reactive expression and follow-up action. Complementing the quantitative analyses, the subsequent conversation analysis discovers qualitative developments of learners in the experimental group; their LRs show not only increased linguistic complexity and greater variety over time but also heightened sensitivity to context and capacity to advance the interaction. These findings suggest that systematic classroom instruction on IC can enhance L2 learners’ ability to engage in real-world interactions, thus supporting that IC is teachable and learnable in the classroom even for beginners with limited linguistic proficiency.

Interactional competence and performances of compliments and consolations by learners of Japanese

Abstract In recent years there has been an increased recognition of the need for learners to understand language as social action. However, language learners are often left on their own to develop the ability to adapt to the unanticipated demands of real-world interaction. To encourage this development, attention is turning toward the notion of interactional competence (IC). The present study contributes to efforts to better understand Japanese learners’ IC. Specifically, this study aims to better understand how learners naturally accomplish compliment and consolation speech acts and for what social purposes, including how learners adapt linguistic forms to do acts that go beyond the act most commonly associated with those forms. Conversation analysis of foreign language housing mealtime conversations revealed two core observations. First, based on preempirical descriptions, compliments occur with more frequency than consolations. Compliments also tend to be deployed as the first part of a compliment-response pair, while consolations tend to be deployed as a response to the public exposure of a challenge or a troubling emotional state. Second, when looking instead at how participants use turns that are construed as compliments regardless of linguistic form, we find that compliments are also used to do activities other than what their surface formulation suggests. A discussion of what these results mean for developing deeper understandings of IC in speech acts performed by language learners is provided.

A generative AI-driven interactive listening assessment task.

Assessments of interactional competence have traditionally been limited in large-scale language assessments. The listening portion suffers from construct underrepresentation, whereas the speaking portion suffers from limited task formats such as in-person interviews or role plays. Human-delivered tasks are challenging to administer at large scales, while automated assessments are typically very narrow in their assessment of the construct because they have carried over the limitations of traditional paper-based tasks to digital formats. However, computer-based assessments do allow for more interactive, automatically administered tasks, but come with increased complexity in task creation. Large language models present new opportunities for enhanced automated item generation (AIG) processes that can create complex content types and tasks at scale that support richer assessments. This paper describes the use of such methods to generate content at scale for an interactive listening measure of interactional competence for the Duolingo English Test (DET), a large-scale, high-stakes test of English proficiency. The Interactive Listening task assesses test takers' ability to participate in a full conversation, resulting in a more authentic assessment of interactive listening ability than prior automated assessments by positing comprehension and interaction as purposes of listening. The results of a pilot of 713 tasks with hundreds of responses per task, along with the results of human review, demonstrate the feasibility of a human-in-the-loop, generative AI-driven approach for automatic creation of complex educational assessments at scale.

From Conversation to Interaction: A Pedagogical Exploration of Applying Conversation Analysis in EFL Classrooms

Within the communicative language teaching approach, current instructional materials often lack explicit guidance or fail to provide L2 learners with a wide range of resources in the target language. Conversation analysis (CA), which focuses on authentic talk, has been proposed as a potential resource for language classrooms. This study examines the effectiveness of using CA as a pedagogical approach in an EFL classroom and its impact on learners’ attitudes toward English language learning. The study engaged eight adult learners in a structured program, encompassing a pre-test, a 4-week explicit CA-informed instruction, and a post-test. After four weeks, learners demonstrated progress in their knowledge and skills of interaction, different aspects of English speaking, interactional competence, and confidence in speaking English. Additionally, the CA-informed instruction positively influenced learners’ attitudes toward English language learning and their appreciation of interactional features. The results strongly suggest that language teachers should consider incorporating CA insights into their teaching practices to enhance both linguistic and attitudinal outcomes.

"Support the strong" or "Help the weak?": The effects of social comparison and social distance on cooperative behavior in the dictator game.

Within an object-interdependent context, we conducted three experiments to investigate the influence of social comparisons on cooperative behavior, as well as to assess the mediating and moderating effects of related variables. In Experiment 1 (n = 207), we examined whether social comparisons impact cooperative behavior toward a comparator in a dictator game task. Here, we specifically focused on the mediating effects of evaluation of others' competence, along with three other potential mediators: self-competence evaluation, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Following the insights gained from Experiment 1, we proceeded to Experiments 2 (n = 279) and 3 (n = 298) to further explore whether social distance moderates the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence. The results of all three experiments consistently indicated that upward (vs. non-) comparison facilitated cooperative behavior, whereas downward (vs. non-) comparison hindered it. Furthermore, our findings revealed that evaluation of others' competence served as a mediator between social comparison and cooperative behavior when the comparator (i.e., the cooperative partner) was perceived as being at a far-distance, whereas the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence disappeared when social distance was close. These results reveal the pivotal role of evaluating others' competence and social distance in social interactions from the perspective of social comparison, which provides insights into how to promote cooperative behavior.