Teaching Language Learners to Elaborate on Their Responses: A Structured, Genre‐Based Approach

Due to Japanese students' poor record of conversational ability in English in homestay contexts (Pryde, 2014), classroom English language curriculum decisions were reinvestigated in order to better prepare students to participate in study abroad experiences. A genre‐based approach was used to teach and reinforce a conversational structure designed to extend students' second move in the initiation, response, follow‐up (IRF) triadic dialogue. This study discusses how a genre‐based approach can teach language learners to make the most of their role in an IRF‐based conversational framework and specifically investigated the use of an educational tool, termed “quadratic structure,” to improve students' conversational skills, metalinguistic awareness, confidence, and willingness to communicate in the target language. Pedagogical implications for both course design and study abroad are also discussed.