A discourse-analytic perspective into classroom interactional competence development of English as a foreign language instructors: A multiple-case study

The purpose of this study is three-fold; first, to explore novice EFL instructors' needs for further professional development pertaining to classroom interactional features, second, to enhance their classroom interactional competence (CIC) with specific reference to the classroom interactional features identified, namely teacher echo, teacher interruption, limited wait-time, turn completion and extended teacher turn through the use of self-evaluation of teacher talk framework (SETT) and third, to showcase if enhanced CIC awareness had any positive impact on the instructors' actual classroom interactional practices. To do this, a multiple-case study design was chosen, and data were collected from three novice EFL instructors whose teaching experiences were limited to 0-3 years at a tertiary context. For these aims, the data were collected through video-recordings, video-stimulated recalls (VSRs), SETT grid, dialogic reflection sessions, audio recordings and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed through SETT and Conversation Analysis (CA) as an instrument and thematic analysis. The instructors' needs for further professional development were found to be turn completion, teacher interruption, limited wait-time, teacher echo and extended teacher turn. The findings revealed that although the focal points were still observed in the instructors' data, all cases showed improvement in terms of identification of the focal points, critical self-evaluation and making conscious interactive decisions after the intervention. The evidence for increased awareness came from VSRs on video recordings and their CA analyses, and dialogic SETT reflections through which they described, reflected, and critically evaluated themselves. In the light of the findings, pedagogical implications for L2 teacher education, SETT and CIC were provided. Keywords: novice EFL instructors, classroom interactional competence (CIC), reflective practice, self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT), multiple-case study.