Social Skills of English Teachers in Educational Interactions at Secondary Schools

The aim of the dissertation is to define the requisite social skills of the English language teacher as a part of his/her professional competence, in the context of communicative language teaching in classroom interactions at secondary schools. The theoretical part is divided into four chapters. The first chapter addresses the processes involved in foreign language learning and acquisition. It first defines the linguo-didactic framework of the dissertation in terms of the functional communicative approach to language and communicative language teaching. The second chapter deals with the processes of interaction and communication at school with an emphasis on foreign language teaching. Attention is paid to functions and content of educational interactions as practised by the main stakeholders - the teachers and their adolescent pupils. The specifics of foreign language educational interaction and its social features are illustrated. The third chapter seeks to define social skills and their relationship to other skills in the professional competence of the English teacher. In the final chapter the theoretical discussion is summarized and social-skill aspects of foreign language educational interactions are defined. Specifically, these aspects are defined in terms of affect, classroom climate,..