Document Type : research paper
Authors
1 دانشیار گروه آموزش زبان انگلیسی دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی، تهران، ایران
2 دانشجوی دکترای آموزش زبان انگلیسی دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی، تهران، ایران
Abstract
Even though interactional competence (IC) has been in the center of attention recently, its constructs/sub-components and influencing factors still require a profound scrutiny. The features associated with IC have indeed been probed in various realms of language learning and teaching. However, the effect of language learners’ gender on their perception of IC remains to be addressed. To bridge this gap, the present research, as one of the stages of development and verification of the Learners’ Interactional Competence Questionnaire (LICQ) investigated how gender may affect IC and its sub-constructs as perceived by males and females. A total number of 407 male and female intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners, selected through convenience sampling from several language institutes, participated in the study and responded to LICQ. Subsequently, a two-group Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to measure the potential effects of students’ gender on perceived interactional competence, including conversational management, speech acts, register, nonverbal semiotics, and requests and complaints. The results showed that gender did have a small significant effect on learners’ perceived interactional competence as a whole; while scrutinizing sub-components, it was also revealed that this effect is not visible in conversational management. The study findings provide learners with a self-assessment scale to identify their present state of IC perception. Besides, language teachers could consider the different perceptions of male and female learners of IC as an influential aspect of IC realization and development in the language classroom setting.
Keywords
Azhar, K. A., & Iqbal, N. (2018). Turn-taking and gender differences in language classroom. Journal of NELTA, 23(1), 54-67.
Barraja-Rohan, A. M. (2011). Using conversation analysis in the second language classroom to teach interactional competence. Language Teaching Research, 15(4), 479-507.
Brooks, L. (2009). Interacting in pairs in a test of oral proficiency: Coconstructing a better performance. Language testing, 26(3), 341-366.
Campbell-Larsen, J. (2015). Interactional competence in second language acquisition. Kwansei Gakuin Univ Humanit Rev, 19, 265-286.
Cekaite, A. (2007). A child’s development of interactional competence in a Swedish L2 classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 91(1), 45-62.
Chan, M., Rogers, K. H., Parisotto, K. L., & Biesanz, J. C. (2011). Forming first impressions: The role of gender and normative accuracy in personality perception. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(1), 117-120.
Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and gender. Cambridge University Press.
Fishman, P. (1983). Interaction: the work women do. In B. Thorne, C. Kramarae & N. Henley (eds.), language, gender and society (pp. 89–102). Newbury House.
Galaczi, E. D. (2013). Interactional competence across proficiency levels: How do learners manage interaction in paired speaking tests?, Applied Linguistics, 35(5), 1-23.
Galaczi, E. D., & Taylor, L. (2018). Interactional competence: Conceptualizations, operationalization, and outstanding questions,
Language Assessment Quarterly, 15(3), 219-236.
Gan, Z. (2010). Interaction in group oral assessment: A case study of higherand lower-scoring students, Language Testing, 27(4), 585-602.
Hall, J. K., & Doehler, S. P. (2011). L2 Interactional Competence and Development. In J. K. Hall, J. Hellermann, & S. P. Doeher (Eds.), L2
Interactional Competence and Development (pp. 1-15). Multilingual Matters.
Hall, J. A. (1978). Gender effects in decoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 845–857.
Hall, J. K. (1995). (Re) creating our worlds with words: A sociohistoricalperspective of face-to-face interaction. Applied linguistics, 16(2), 206-232.
He, A. W. & Young, R. (1998). Language proficiency interviews: A discourse approach. In R. Young & A. W. He (Eds.), Talking and testing: Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (pp. 1-24). John Benjamins.
Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. Longman.
Holmes, J. (1998). Women’s talk: the question of sociolinguistic universals. In J. Coates (eds.), language and gender: a reader (pp. 461–483). Blackwell.
Holmes, J. & Meyerhoff, M. (2003). The handbook of language and gender. Blackwell.
Izard, C. E. (1971). The Face of Emotion. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Jafarigohar, M., Rouhi, A., & Rahimi Kazerooni, S. (2021). Iranian EFL Learners’ Interactional Competence in Paired Speaking Tasks: An
Account of Task Type Variability. Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 8(4), 111-136.
Jajarmi, H. (2022). Interactional competence of English language learners: Exploring its construct and microgenetic development by gender and learning experience (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Allameh Tabataba’i University.
Kasper, G. (2006). Beyond repair: Conversation analysis as an approach to SLA. AILA review, 19(1), 83-99.
Kassaian, Z. (2011). Age and gender effect in phonetic perception and production. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(2), 370-376.
Kecskes, I., Sanders, R. E., & Pomerantz, A. (2018). The basic interactional competence of language learners. Journal of Pragmatics, 124, 88-105.
Kramsch, C. (1986). From language proficiency to interactional competence. The Modern Language Journal, 70(4), 366–372.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman’s place. Language in Society, 2(1), 45-79.
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. Harper and Row.
Liao, Y. S. S. (2012). Gender-based interactional competence in NNS-NS English conversation. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 5(7), 265-286.
Markee, N. (2008). Toward a learning behavior tracking methodology for CAfor-SLA’. Applied Linguistics, 29(3), 404-427.
Masuda, K. (2011). Acquiring interactional competence in a study abroad context: Japanese language learners’ use of the interactional particle ne, The Modern Language Journal, 95(4), 519-540.
May, L. (2011). Interactional competence in a paired speaking test: Features salient to raters. Language Assessment Quarterly, 8(2), 127-145.
McCarthy, M. (2005). Fluency and Confluence: What Fluent Speakers Do? The Language Teacher, 29(6), 26-28.
Merten, J. (2005). Culture, gender and the recognition of the basic emotions. Psychologia, 48(4), 306–316.
Misesani, D., & Lestari, L. A. (2017, October). Second Language Interactional Competence in Classroom Discursive Practices. In Social Sciences, Humanities and Economics Conference (SoSHEC 2017) (pp. 14-19). Atlantis Press.
Nemati, M., Dashtestani, S. R., & Izadi, A. (2022). Exploring Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices regarding Classroom Interactional Competence and Uncovering Reasons behind Their Belief-Practice Misalignment. Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 9(3), 131-158.
Pavlidou, T. S. (2003). Patterns of participation in classroom interaction: Girls’ and boys’ non-compliance in a Greek high school. Linguistics and Education, 1(14), 123-141.
Roever, C., & Kasper, G. (2018). Speaking in turns and sequences: Interactional competence as a target construct in testing speaking. Language testing, 35(3), 331-355.
Scherer, K. R., Banse, R., & Wallbott, H. G. (2001). Emotion inferences from vocal expression correlate across languages and cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(1), 76–92.
Schröter, D., Britta, N., & Kießling, R. (2017). Request, complaint or requestcomplaint? Speech acts which include the expression of disapproval in two communication cultures of the Cameroonian Grassfields. In G. G.
Atindogbé &. & E. F. Chibaka (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th World Congress of African Linguistics (pp.178-231), Langaa.
Shams, A., & Afghari, A. (2011). Effects of culture and gender in comprehension of speech acts of indirect request. English Language
Teaching, 4(4), 279-287.
Sharqawi, M. A., & Anthony, E. M. (2020). Analyzing gender effect on the speech act of suggestion: A pilot study. Academic Journal of
Interdisciplinary Studies, 9(4), 62-76.
Sifianou, M. (2001). “Oh! How appropriate!” Compliments and politeness. In A. Bayraktarglou, M. Sifianou (eds.), Linguistic politeness: The case of Greece and Turkey (pp.391-430). John Benjamins.
Sikder, S. (2021). Request strategies and gender differences among Bangladeshi students within online classrooms. International Journal of English Language Studies, 3(9), 1-8.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistic. Pearson.
Taguchi, N. (2014). Development of interactional competence in Japanese as a second language: Use of incomplete sentences as interactional resources. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 518-535.
Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: women and men in conversation. William Morrow.
Taylor, L., & Wigglesworth, G. (2009). Are two heads better than one? Pair work in L2 assessment contexts. Language Testing, 26(3), 325-339.
Walsh, S. (2012). Conceptualizing classroom interactional competence. Research on Youth and Language, 6(1), 1-14.
Wodak, R. & Benke, G. (1997). Gender as a sociolinguistic variable. In F. Coulmas (Eds.). The handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 127–50).
Blackwell.
Yakushkina, M. (2018). Gender performance through turn-taking organization in a foreign language classroom. The Language Learning Journal, 49(2),176-188.
Young, R. (2003). Learning to talk the talk and walk the walk: Interactional competence in academic spoken English. North Eastern Illinois University Working Papers in Linguistics, 2, 26-44.
Young, R. F. (2008). Language and interaction: An advanced resource book. Routledge.
Young, R. F. (2011). Interactional competence in language learning, teaching and testing. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in language teaching and learning (pp. 427-443). Routledge.
Young, R. F. (2013). Learning to talk the talk and walk the walk: Interactional competence in academic spoken English. Ibérica, 25, 15-38.
)