Learning to converse through dialogic speech acts. An approach to the development of interactional skills

This paper presents an approach to the development of oral interactional skills, field-tested with intermediate-level University students of English as a foreign language based on the provision of specific input and training. Its aim was to build a repertoire of communicative strategies and automatize conversa-tional behaviour in the production and reaction to speech acts (apologies, thanks, complaints, compliments, offers and requests). The approach shows how conversational skills can be developed by exposing learners to model interactions, guiding them in the analysis of dialogues’ formal-functional properties, and engaging them in activities motivating their autonomy.