Interaction in the second language classroom

By: Suada Suliman
Interaction in the Second Language
Classroom

Contents:
◈ The teacher’s action Zone
◈ Interactional competence
◈ Learner interactional patterns
◈ Grouping arrangements

What is classroom
interaction?
Is it important ? Why?

Interaction Minimal Interaction

1-The teacher's action zone
• What is a Teacher’s Action Zone?

The teacher's action zone
• What are some of the factors that can
create/define a Teachers Action Zone?
1. Look more often to the right hand side of the class than to
the left.
2. Call on girls more often than boys.
3. Call on students of one ethnic background more often than
those of another.
4. Call on students whose names are easy to remember.
5. Call on brighter students more often than others.
6. In a mainstream class containing students with limited
English proficiency, tend to focus attention on the first
language speakers in the classroom and to make relatively
few demands on the others
(Schinke-Llano 1983).

Interactional competence
Learners need to learn how they are expected to interact in
the classroom.
It involves learning particular patterns of interaction
and behavior both vis-a-vis the other students in the
class as well as with the teacher.

2-Interactional competence
It includes several dimensions of classroom behavior
1. Knowing the etiquette of classroom interaction
Teachers establish their own rules for appropriate classroom behavior.

• Students need to know when they should work
individually on a task.
• Students need when it is appropriate to seek other
students' assistance or cooperation.
• If students are unclear as to what the teacher's rules
are, they may behave in ways that the teacher finds
inappropriate.
2- Knowing the rules for individual and collaborative
work

• Teachers prefer setting aside a particular question segment
within a lesson.
• Teachers prefer students to ask questions as they arise.
• Students are expected to wait until called on and to answer only
when they are sure of being right.
• In a language classroom students’ active participation is
encouraged as it is regarded as language practice.
3- Knowing when to ask and answer questions
On entering a new class, a priority for learners is to establish what their expected level of participation is
and when and how they should interrupt the teacher to ask questions.

• Learners also have to learn what rules operate for getting help
during a lesson.
• Should they ask the teacher? Should they turn to another
student?
4- Knowing how and when to get assistance or feedback in
completing a task

• Some teachers, particularly teachers from a Western culture,
encourage learners to display what they have learned in front of
their peers.
• students from some cultures may feel that publicly displaying
one's knowledge in this way would be seen by their peers as
showing off; hence, they might avoid answering the questions.
5- Knowing appropriate rules for displaying knowledge

3-Learner interactional pattern
A result of individual
differences in learners'
personalities and their
individual cognitive styles,
different patterns of interaction
can often be observed among
learners in any one class.

• Task-oriented students (Concrete Learning Style)
highly competent and successful in completing academic tasks.
Complete tasks with a high degree of accuracy
Enjoy school and learning
Do not hesitate to ask for teacher’s help
Cooperative and create few discipline problems.

• Phantom students (Analytical Learning Style)
May not often be noticed or heard in the classroom
Generally good students who work steadily on classroom
tasks
Rarely initiate conversation or ask for help
Do not disrupt the class or other students
Teachers and other students do not know them very well

• Social students (Communicative Learning Style)
 Place a high value on personal interaction
 They tend to value socializing with friends more than completing class
assignments
 Enjoy tutoring others in the class and participate actively in the lesson,
although their answers may not always be correct
 Tend to be popular with their classmates, but they may be less popular
with their teachers due to class management problems.
 Talk too much and do not hesitate to seek assistance from the teacher
or other classmates

• Dependent students (Authority-oriented Learning Style)
 Need the teacher's support and guidance to complete class tasks
 Tend not to maintain engagement on tasks without frequent
reinforcement and support
 Need structure and guidance in completing tasks
 Depend on the teacher or other students to tell them if their learning
has been successful
 Depend on the teacher or other students on how to solve their learning
problems

• Isolated students
 Set themselves apart from others and withdraw
from classroom interactions
 May avoid learning situations by turning away
from activities such as peer or group work
 Show reluctance to sharing their work with others
or allowing others to respond to it
 Tend to be less proficient in completing learning
tasks

• Alienated student
 React against teaching and learning and are often
hostile and aggressive
 They create discipline problems and make it difficult
for those around them to work
 Require close supervision
 Rearning problems are often related to personal
problems.

4- Grouping arrangements
 Whole-class teaching
 Individualwork
 Pair work
 Groupwork
Most teachers use the following learning
arrangements depending on the kind of
lesson they are teaching

The teacher leads the whole class through a
learning task. It’s most commonly used models
in public school teaching, particularly for the
beginning of a lesson.
Whole-class teaching

Patterns of student-teacher interaction in teacher-led
whole-class activities have been classified and
categorized through an observational system by Brown
(1975)
 TL Teacher lectures - describes, explains, narrates, directs
 TQ Teacher questions about content or procedure, which pupils are intended to
answer.
 TR Teacher responds - accepts feelings of the class. Praises, encourages,
jokes with pupils. Accepts or uses pupils' ideas. Builds upon pupil responses.
Uses mild criticism such as "no, not quite.“
 PR Pupils respond directly and predictably to teacher questions and directions.
 PV Pupils volunteer information, comments, or questions.
 S Silence - pauses, short periods of silence.
 X Unclassifiable. Confusion in which communications cannot be understood.
Unusual activities such as reprimanding or criticizing pupils. Demonstrating
without accompanying teacher or pupil talk. Short spates of blackboard work
without accompanying teacher or pupil talk.

Advantages:
 Enables the teacher to teach large numbers of students at the same
time
 ESL students can feel that they are a part of the mainstream group
and are functioning under equal terms
 Serves as a preparation for subsequent activities which can be
completed individually or in groups
Disadvantages:
 Teacher-dominated, with little opportunity for active student
participation
 Teachers tend to interact with only a small number of students in
the class
 Whole-class teaching assumes that all students can proceed at the
same pace. However, slower students may be lost, and brighter
students may be held back

It includes activities such as:
Completing worksheets
Reading a comprehension passage and answering
questions
Doing exercises from a text or workbook
Composition and essay writing
Individual
work
- Individual work, or "seatwork," is
generally the second most frequently
used teaching pattern in classrooms.

Advantages:
 It provides learners with the opportunity to progress at their own
speed and in their own way.
 It provides learners with opportunities to practice and apply skills
they have learned.
 It enables teachers to assess student progress.
 It enables teachers to assign different activities to different
learners based on individual abilities and needs.
 It can be used to prepare learners for an up-coming activity.
Disadvantages:
 It provides little opportunity for interaction, both with the teacher
and with other students.
 It is sometimes difficult to monitor what students are actually doing
during individual work.
 Students may complete a task at different times and run out of
things to do, creating a classroom management problem.

Characteristics of successful individual
work:
 It should be planned so that it relates to other
kinds of learning arrangements, rather than
being an isolated "filler" activity
 Students should be given specific tasks with
clear goals
 There should be monitoring and follow-up to
determine if students understand the task or are
completing it accurately.
 Tasks should be at the right level of difficulty.
 Students should know what to do when
completing an activity

Pair work
Through interacting with other students in pairs or
groups, students can be given the opportunity to draw
on their linguistic resources in a nonthreatening
situation and use them to complete different kinds of
tasks.

The following factors influence the nature of pair work tasks
• Information flow:
- Both students need to have different information that they are required to
share in order to solve a problem or complete a task.
-Tasks with this type of information flow have been described as two-way tasks,
while tasks in which one student has new information and presents it to his or
her partner have been described a one-way tasks
• Product focus:
- Tasks are often more motivating if the result of the negotiation or interaction is
some kind of product, such as a list, a map, a completed diagram, or a chart.
• Choice of partner:
- Many different kinds of pairings are possible: for example, by mixed
ability levels, shared ability levels, or mixed ethnic or language background
• Roles of partners:
- For some tasks both students may share a common role; for other tasks, one
partner may serve as a peer tutor.

Group work
The use of group work activities is another frequently cited strategy
for changing the interactional dynamics of language classrooms

Group work advantages:
 It reduces the dominance of the teacher over the
class.
 It increases the amount of student participation in
the class.
 It increases the opportunities for individual
students to practice and use new features of the
target language.
 It promotes collaboration among learners.
 It enables the teacher to work more as a facilitator
and consultant.
 It can give learners a more active role in learning.

Use each interaction to be the best, most
powerful version of yourself.
Marianne Williamson
Thank you

Interaction in the second language classroom

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