communicate such things as rapport, empathy, interest and social harmony
(interactional function), and those where the primary focus is on com-
municating information and completing different kinds of real world trans-
actions (transactional function). Interactional communication is primarily
person-orientated, whereas transactional communication is primarily
message-focused. Interactional and transactional language may differ in
terms of such things as conventions for turn-taking, topics, and discourse
management.interactional functionn
see developmental functions of language
interaction analysisn
also interaction process analysis
any of several procedures for measuring and describing the behaviour of
students and teachers in classrooms, (a) in order to describe what happens
during a lesson (b) to evaluate teaching (c) to study the relationship between
teaching and learning (d) to help teacher-trainees learn about the process
of teaching. In interaction analysis, classroom behaviour is observed and
the different types of student and teacher activity are classified, using a
classification scheme. Several such schemes have been proposed.
interaction hypothesisn
the hypothesis that language acquisition requires or greatly benefits from
interaction, communication and especially negotiation of meaning, which
happens when interlocutors attempt to overcome problems in conveying
their meaning, resulting in both additional input and useful feedback on the
learner’s own production.
interactionismn
also interactionist position
(in psychology, linguistics, and research on language acquisition) the view
that language development and social development are associated and that
one cannot be understood without the other. Researchers who take an
interactionist position focus on the social context of language development
and how the relationship between the language learner and the persons
with whom he or she interacts influences language acquisition. This
perspective is sometimes contrasted with a linguistic approach, which
holds that language acquisition can be understood through analysis of the
learner’s utterances, independently of his or her cognitive development or
social life.
interactional function