Worldwide experience in teaching foreign languages. Key words

1.4 There is currently no valid basis for the evaluation of L2 classroom interaction

Because we do not have a methodology or framework for describing and analysing L2 classroom interaction, we do not have a basis for evaluating the interaction: "We are just at the beginning of classroom research where we can describe what actually [-3-] goes on, but not yet whether that is `good' or `bad'" (Van Lier, 1988, p. 178). Since there is no agreed basis for evaluating interaction, it often happens that different writers dispute the value of a particular text. (See section 3 for an example of this, as well as for further discussion of the problem of evaluation.)