RELATIONAL ALIGNMENT THEORY: CLINIC TO CLASSROOM CONNECTING COMMUNICATION IN TESOL AND CLINICAL MEDICINE

Abstract

Despite sharing the common ground of communication in medicine and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), these remain compartmentalized within professional literature, even though both are based on shared interpersonal building blocks. This paper presents a theoretical account of a new model, Relational Alignment Theory (RAT), which posits structural correspondences between classroom and clinical relating. RAT claims that effective practice in high-stakes, asymmetrical domains is grounded in three related dimensions: Affective Presence (engendering emotional safety), Interpretive Listening (listening to wholes) and Co-Constructed Meaning (building understanding together). Based on up-to-date knowledge (2020-25), the article suggests that changes after the pandemic like those in digital communication and linguistic prescience, as well psychological and somatic acuteness, additionally approximate to relational competences preserving there at school and business. Drawing on theories of health communication, applied linguistics and socio-emotional learning, RAT offers an analytical tool to move beyond generic "communication skills training. The article ends with implications for pedagogy and clinical training, proposing for interdisciplinary models preparing professionals to grapple with emotional labor, of power dynamics, and meaning-making in a diverse world. Such re-framing locates communication not as a soft skill but as a conscious, learnable articulation point of professional competence foundational to equity, safety and human-centred outcomes.