Worldwide experience in teaching foreign languages. Key words

1. A Methodology is required for the Description, Analysis and Evaluation of L2 Interaction.

I would first like to present five reasons why a methodology is needed for the description, analysis and evaluation of L2 interaction.

1.1 Communication is important as a basis, vehicle and goal of L2 teaching

Recent approaches to E.L.T. have presented communication in the classroom as one of the most essential concepts in language teaching. As Kumaravadivelu (1993, p. 12) says: "...theorists and practitioners alike almost unanimously emphasise communication of one kind or another." At the same time, though, the assumption appears to have been made that communication is a straightforward[-1-] and uniform concept which is easily definable and identifiable. In fact, none of the most prominent texts of the Communicative Approach (Littlewood, 1981; Brumfit and Johnson, 1979; Widdowson, 1978) provides a definition or characterisation of `communication'.

However, investigation of the psychological literature on communication shows that it is a complex and elusive phenomenon, and that there are many different varieties, levels and definitions of communication. The E.L.T. world has tended to equate communication with "the exchange of ideas, information, etc. between two or more persons" (Richards, 1985, p. 48). However, "there is no consensus as to its definition" (Harre & Lamb, 1983, p. 102) and there are many possible alternative definitions of communication: "communication is the mechanism by which power is exerted" (Aubrey Fisher, 1978, p. 7), "the establishment of a social unit from individuals by the use of language or signs" (Aubrey Fisher, 1978, p. 8), "communication is a name for the overall system of relationships people develop between each other and with the community and habitat in which they live" (Harre & Lamb, 1983, p. 104). There are three distinct approaches to the study of communication. Identifying communication is also problematic, since there is a general consensus (Hannemann & McEwen, 1975; Watzlawick et al., 1980; Ellis & Beattie, 1986) that it is impossible not to communicate: "Activity or inactivity, words or silence all have message value: they influence others and these others, in turn, cannot not respond to these communications and are thus themselves communicating" (Watzlawick et al., 1980, p. 23). This means that communication takes place whether or not it is "intentional, conscious or successful" (ibid). Communication of some kind is therefore always taking place in the language classroom whatever we do there--even if we stand on our heads wiggling our toes at the students.

We are therefore in the paradoxical situation of having adopted communication as a major basis, vehicle, and goal of what we do in the L2 classroom while we have no adequate conceptual or practical framework or methodology for describing, analysing or evaluating the communication which takes place in the L2 classroom: "We still do not have any detailed knowledge about the structure of interaction and communication in the foreign language classroom" (Krumm, 1981). It may be objected at this point that emphasis on communication could be another passing fad in L2 teaching. However, English is increasingly being used by learners throughout the world as a lingua franca, an international means of communication, rather than a linguistic system to be studied in abstraction for its own intrinsic merit. It is likely, therefore, that communication will remain a vital concept in L2 teaching. [-2-]