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Language Learning in Higher Education

Journal of the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education (CercleS)

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Conversational interaction and the development of conversational competence in additional languages in higher education: Considerations for students, language centres, and language policy developers

Stephan Meyer / Valérie Blondel / Beatrice Mall-Grob
Published Online: 2017-10-07 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2017-0010

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Abstract

This article addresses the questions: why is the development of conversational competence important within higher education? And how might this goal be pursued? We offer answers that may aid a broad range of stakeholders (language learners, course designers, lecturers, language development managers, and policy makers) in thinking through these issues. Our point of departure is the view that, whilst conversational interaction is significant, prevalent and complex, the development of conversational competence receives insufficient attention. We propose that this indispensable skill can be enhanced through dedicated development in the process of learning additional languages. To illustrate how this could be done, we provide extended examples from three conversation courses that are informed by a broad and normative definition of conversation that is coupled with a didactics of conversation rooted in critical theory and critical discourse analysis. The three courses are: a French conversation class in which conversation serves as mediator of identity and difference in an imagined community; conversations between learners of German who are paired with residents of a retirement home where conversation serves to fortify auto/biographical, intercultural and intergenerational contracts; and an English conversation group in which learners combine topic-oriented conversations with shaping the conversations that in turn shape them. Combined, these courses foreshadow fragments of an explicit curriculum aimed at developing conversational competence.

Keywords: teaching conversation; French, German and English conversation; L2 interaction; second language acquisition; curriculum development

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About the article

Stephan Meyer

Stephan Meyer coordinates and teaches in the English programme at the Language Centre of the University of Basel. He is currently investigating correlations and discrepancies between the views on writing held by students, their lecturers within the disciplines, and academic writing instructors.

Valérie Blondel

Valerie Blondel coordinates and teaches in the French programme at the Language Centre of the University of Basel. After 15 years of professional life in publishing, she qualified to train trainers in French as an additional language, with a particular interest in evaluation.

Beatrice Mall-Grob

Beatrice Mall-Grob coordinates and teaches in the German programme at the Language Centre of the University of Basel. She is also active as a certified Goethe examiner. Her areas of interest include rhetoric and conversation management.

Published Online: 2017-10-07

Published in Print: 2017-10-26

Citation Information: Language Learning in Higher Education, Volume 7, Issue 2, Pages 239–274, ISSN (Online) 2191-6128, ISSN (Print) 2191-611X, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2017-0010.

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