ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 examines how a critical relational pedagogy can respond to foreign-language participants’ communicative needs so that they can interact in meaningful ways and come across in the way that they intend interpersonally. A relational pedagogy is relevant to all levels of foreign-language learning as interlocutors develop interpersonal abilities. The pedagogical starting point commences with the foreign-language learners themselves: learners should establish what they want to be able to achieve in the target language, find their voice and be given the necessary support and guidance to achieve these aims. This is discussed through concepts of the anonymous/anybody/somebody language users as FL interactants determine how they want to construct and develop interpersonal relationships. The development of relational assets evolves from speakers’ own experiences and histories and the spontaneous, interactive and interpersonal characteristics of relational talk. Furthermore, the chapter identifies how FL users’ expectations can be met through the enactment of interactional ability as bilingual speakers determine how they want to construct and develop interpersonal relationships. Such a framework allows language learners to ascertain their desired level of language involvement and achieve intelligibility, interactional balance and positionality in the TL.
