ABSTRACT
In recent years, the notion that the meanings of words and sentences are typically ‘negotiated’ through interaction between speakers (that is, created or interpreted by one speaker by cooperative adjustment to the assumptions and knowledge of another) has been strongly canvassed by proponents of a ‘communicative’ approach to language teaching, and now commands wide support among methodologists, teacher trainers and materials writers. This view is of course one reflection of a more general shift of interest within language teaching theory away from the formal features of language and towards the principles which control their appropriate use in normal communication (Breen and Candlin 1980; Brumfit 1985a and b; Widdowson 1978, 1979, 1983).
