Socio-pragmatic skills have been identified as important components of communicative competence in the workplace, yet relatively few studies have undertaken an evaluation of the effects of classroom-based support in developing both cognitive control and social competence in these areas of language proficiency. This paper reports on a collaborative…

This study analyzed tape-recorded workplace small talk collected in New Zealand workplaces, including workplaces employing workers with intellectual disabilities. The topics, the distributional patterns, and the functions of small talk are described, and aspects of the management of small talk which may present problems to workers with…