Sviluppare la Competenza Interazionale di Classe

This article offers a preliminary conceptualisation of Classroom Interactional Competence
(CIC, Walsh, 2011). Placing interaction at the centre of language learning, the paper considers
the various practices available to both teachers and learners to enhance CIC and to
produce classrooms which are more dialogic, more engaged and more focused on participation.
Using a conversation analytic informed methodology, data extracts are presented to
highlight specific features of CIC, relating to the ways in which space for learning is created
and learner contributions ‘shaped’. I suggest that better understandings of these practices
offer an alternative approach to enhancing learning and learning opportunity and highlight
the need for a movement away from classroom decisions which are essentially materials –
and methodology – based towards ones which are centred on spoken interaction.