Abstract
This article introduces the Special Issue presenting the first findings of the Italian project ChICaS (Children's
Interactional Competence at School: Conversational Social Norms, Forms of Participation, and Language Structures), a PRIN (Progetto di Rilevanza Internazionale) project funded by the European Union under the “Next Generation EU” initiative. Grounded in qualitative approaches—primarily conversation analysis—the project investigates the pragmatic and interactional competence of 8–9-year-old children, focusing on the forms of participation and communicative resources used in two classroom settings: whole-class and small group interactions. The project is characterized by two main features worth highlighting for the reader: it is based on authentic, video-recorded data, and it adopts a robust multidisciplinary approach. In this article, we outline the main theoretical frameworks and describe the methodological perspectives guiding our research. Our goal is to provide readers with a roadmap for navigating the contributions included in this Special Issue.