ABSTRACT
The principle of competence describes, paradoxically, an overall ethos or an important stance the teacher must take to establish the foundation for learner development. While the principle of competence lays down the foundation for profitable pedagogical interaction, the principle of complexity draws attention to the potential tensions inhabiting that interaction, a tension best expressed in the notion of multivocality, a quality of teacher talk that has not yet, to my knowledge, been adequately attended to by scholars and practitioners alike. While the principle of complexity unveils an aspect of teacher talk that features conflicts and competition, the principle of contingency directs our attention to an ideal quality of teacher talk, its responsiveness to an unfolding moment in pedagogical interaction, whether it is a moment of simultaneous happenings, unexpected directions, or spontaneous illusions. Finally, managing the contingencies of pedagogical interaction is analogous to the soft assembling required for adapting to an open and emerging system as elucidated in complexity theory.
