Interpersonal and Pedagogical Communication: An Argument for Natural Communication Practices in the Romanian EFL Classroom

The paper explores aspects of EFL classroom discourse in the Romanian context and pleads for the use and cultivation of natural communication practices and relevant language behavior in the classroom. Viewing classroom discourse not only in pedagogical terms but also as a social event, the paper provides a dual perspective on the varied EFL classroom discourse strategies. Some characteristic classroom discourse features, such as its micro-functions, language switching and typical turn-taking are examined and compared to the characteristics of natural encounters. It is argued that the language teachers who ascribe to interpersonal goals in classroom discourse can enhance their students’ long term acquisition of interpersonal language skills. Based on the analysis of the data, the lack of interpersonal language in the classroom is identified as a problematic aspect of Romanian EFL classroom discourse. A few strategies are suggested that could be implemented to help students, directly or indirectly, to get more exposure to the interpersonal language they need to use receptively and productively outside the classroom: the cultivation of natural language behavior, self-analysis of teacher discourse and a diversification of classroom interaction formats