2 - Communicative Interaction in the Foreign Language Classroom

Summary

Chapter 2 discusses the dilemma posed by the requirement that ‘communicative’ English be taught in a foreign language classroom – which is naturally different from real life – and suggest different ways out of this dilemma as general possibilities. The chapter therefore provides a practical applied linguistic background for the more theoretically motivated chapters that follow. We argue that many of the teaching dilemmas triggered by the setting of the foreign language classroom relate to the fact that the classroom provides its own ritual space, in which the conventions and practices and related rights and obligations holding for daily life are turned upside down.Thus, a key dilemma invariably facing the foreign language teacher is how to teach real-life language use in a non-real-life setting.