Developing Interactional Competence at the Workplace: Learning English as a Foreign Language on the Shop Floor

What is it about social interaction at the workplace that spurs interactional competence development? This book explores the answers to this question by analyzing the development of interactional competence by two Vietnamese hotel staff members, one novice and one experienced, as they interact with international guests in English in Vietnam.

Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) in a longitudinal design, Nguyen and Malabarba trace the learners’ observable changes in interact...