Some theoretical reflections on the construct of interactional competence

This chapter focuses on a number of interrelated issues that pertain to the conceptualization of interactional competence (IC) as a theoretical construct in the body of work that uses the methods of ethnomethodological conversation analysis to examine second language acquisition processes (CA-SLA). The Chomskyan notion of competence morphed into the Hymesian construct of communicative competence. This development redrew the rather artificial theoretical boundaries between competence and performance that had been posited by N. Chomsky and laid the foundations for the development of the communicative language teaching and testing movement. The chapter aims o compare how the notions of competence and IC have been used in the parent discipline of sociological CA and in CA-SLA in applied linguistics, and argues that, for a number of interrelated reasons, the simpler term competence is to be preferred.