Foreign Language Classroom Interaction: Does it Promote Communicative Skills?
Classroom interaction is an essential element in developing communicative skills. In a foreign language context like Burkina Faso, the classroom appea.
- Pub. date: August 15, 2020
- Pages: 497-505
- 1218 Downloads
- 1623 Views
- 2 Citations
Classroom interaction is an essential element in developing communicative skills. In a foreign language context like Burkina Faso, the classroom appears as the only setting that provides an opportunity for English language learners to practice their communicative skills. In the classroom, teachers create opportunities for interaction between students and their peers, between students and teachers, and between students and teaching materials. Although those interactions are expected to promote English language acquisition, they sometimes seem insufficient. In this paper, the author examines the interactions between teachers and their students. The author seeks to understand the extent to which they can be conducive to communicative skills. The methodology used to collect this data is qualitative, mostly based on classroom observation and interviews. The participants are high school classroom teachers and their students. The results unveiled that the nature of the interaction was determined by the control and elicitation techniques used by teachers which often limited the opportunities to communicate.
classroom interaction language acquisition communicative skills english as foreign language
Keywords: Classroom interaction, language acquisition, communicative skills, English as foreign language
References
Aisyah, N. (2016). An analysis of teachers’ talk in an EFL classroom. Journal of English and Education, 4(2), 63-79.
Al-Zahrani, M. Y., & Al-Bargi, A. (2017). The impact of teacher questioning on creating interaction in EFL: A discourse analysis. English Language Teaching, 10(6), 135-150.
Amatari, V. O. (2015). The instructional process: A review of Flanders’ interaction analysis in a classroom setting. International Journal of Secondary Education, 3(5), 43-49.
Bature, I. J., & Atweh, B. (2019). Collaboration: A collective bargain for achieving quality mathematics classroom practice. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 5(3), 347 – 361.
Castro, C. M. C. (2009). The use and functions of discourse markers in EFL classroom interaction. Profile Issues in Teachers' Professional Development, 11(1), 57-77.
Champakaew, W., & Pencingkarn, W. (2014). The effectiveness of negotiation for meaning strategies on EFL learners’ oral proficiency development in two way communication tasks. The New English Teacher, 8(1), 80 – 101.
Farahian, M., & Rezaee, M. (2012). A case study of an EFL teacher’s type of questions: An investigation into classroom interaction. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 161-167.
Hui, Y. (2010). Teacher-learner autonomy in second language acquisition. Canadian Social Science, 6(1), 66-69.
Hu, R., & Zhang, G. (2020). A survey study of middle school English instruction in four rural districts in Beijing. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 6(1), 99 - 112
Jarramillo, J. (1996). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and contribution to the development of constructivist curricula. Education, 117(1), 133-140.
Mercer, N. (1994). Neo-Vygotskian theory and classroom education. In B. Steerer & J. Maybin (Eds.), Language, literacy, and learning in educational practice: A reader (pp. 92-110). Multilingual Matters.
Mercer, N. (2004). Sociocultural discourse analysis: Analyzing classroom talk as a mode of thinking. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 1(1), 137-168.
Moskowitz, G. (1967). The effect of training foreign language student teachers in interaction analysis. [Paper presentation]. Annual Conference of American Educational Research Association, New York, NY, United States.
Nabei, T., & Swain, M. (2002). Learner awareness of recasts in classroom interaction: A case study of an adult EFL student’s second language learning, Language awareness, 11(1), 43-63.
Qashoa, S. H. (2013). Effect of teacher question types and syntactic structures in EFL classroom interaction. International Journal of Social Sciences, 7(1), 52-62.
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge University Press.
Rido, A., Ibrahim, N., & Nambiar, R. M. K. (2014). Investigating EFL Master Teacher’s classroom interaction strategies: A case study in Indonesian secondary vocational school. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 118, 420 – 424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.057
Seedhouse, P. (1996). Classroom interaction: Possibilities and impossibilities. ELT Journal, 50(1), 16-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/50.1.16
Schillings, N. (2013). Sociolinguistics fieldwork. Cambridge University Press.
Xuerong, F. (2012). Excellent English teachers’ classroom strategies: A case study of three college English teachers in China. Higher Education Social Sciences, 2(1), 1-7.
Vebriyanto, D. A. (2015). Teacher’s questions in EFL classroom interaction. Journal for Language and Foreign Language learning, 4(2), 279-298. https://doi.org/10.21580/vjv4i21595
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Walsh, S. (2002). ‘Construction or obstruction: teacher talk and learner involvement in the EFL classroom’. Language Teaching Research, 6(1), 3-23. https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168802lr095oa
Walsh, S. (2011). Exploring classroom discourse: Language in action. Routledge.