This presentation reports on the early quantitative results of an ongoing mixed methods research project comparing the effects of Recursive Conversations (RCs) (Bowyer, 2019) with more traditional focused practice activities (Cornillie at al., 2017) on learners’ L2 interactional competence. Two groups of first-year non-English majors at a Japanese university participated in this research for one academic year. Both groups began the year at the CEFR upper A2 level (Milton & Alexiou, 2009). The groups received 90 minutes of English conversation instruction per week, with Group 1 (n = 24) conducting RCs while Group 2 (n = 17) received focused practice lessons. At the end of the year, their recorded conversations were transcribed. They were then compared for spoken accuracy, fluency, and complexity using Mann-Whitney U tests. This presentation will report on these initial results, articulate the implications for the L2 teaching community, and describe the next steps of the project.