Teacher talk and classroom interaction

Your trainerWendy Arnold

• MA in Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)

• Freelance teacher, trainer, writer, researcher

• IATEFL’s YL SIG committee• Specialist in reading for young

learner literacy• 15 years experience teaching Chinese

young learners

What do you know?Interaction

• Features of teacher talk• Principles of giving

instruction and feedback

• Name the different types of classroom interaction

• Explain the role of interaction, input, output

Teacher talk

DID YOUR LIST LOOK LIKE THIS?

PAIRWORK

questions and answers

dialogue

GROUPWORK

projectsrole play

TEACHER TALK

giving instructionsasking and answering questions

surveysWHOLE CLASS

games

songs/chants

Interaction

Input

Comprehensible output ( 可理解性输出 )

Comprehensible input ( 可理解性输入 )

Output

Language Acquisition( 语 言习得 )

Interaction

Summary of the relationship between interactions, comprehensible input, output and language acquisition

Example of pairwork (video)Students Teacher

• What are they doing?• Are they engaged?• Do they understand what

they are doing?

• What are they doing?• Are they supporting

anyone? How?

WHAT MAKES THE INTERACTION

EFFECTIVE(有效 )?

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS(问题 ) OF THE INTERACTION?

Example of groupwork (video)Students Teacher

• What are they doing?• Are they all engaged?

• What are they doing?• Are they helping anyone?

WHAT MAKES THE INTERACTION EFFECTIVE?

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS OF THE

INTERACTION?

Example of whole class activity (video)Students Teacher

• What they doing?• Does everyone know how

to do it?• How successful are they?

• What are they doing?• Are the instructions clear?• Are they supporting

anyone? How?

WHAT MAKES THE INTERACTION EFFECTIVE?

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS OF THE

INTERACTION?

Feedback

Teacher

• How are the teachers giving feedback?

The Nature of interaction

a. The teacher’s “interactional” adjustment

b. The pupils’ “interactional” behaviors

Input and interactional adjustments (交互性调整 )

The most commonly used strategies to make the language input more comprehensible are:

1. RepeatingWhat do you think

of these strategies?Have you

identified other strategies in the

video clips?

3. Switching to Chinese

2. Simplifying questions

4. Setting an example

Atkinson (1987:426) worries that the teacher and/or the students will feel that “they have not ‘really understood any item of language until it has been translated.”

1. Provide the beginning of a sentence and let pupils continue. Elicit by starting the sentence: For example: “Here’s the……”

Output and interactional adjustments

The most commonly used strategies to elicit language output are:

Have you identified other strategies in the

video clips?

2. Set a model and ask pupils to repeat. Give requirement: “You must say ……” or provide the expected answer.

3. Use rhetorical (反问 )questions: Example: Ss: Where’s the marker? S: Here’s the pencil sharpener. T: Pencil sharpener?

Walsh (2002, cited Wacaro, 2003:198) identified a number of features which obstructed(阻碍 ) learning potential(潜力 ).

Can you give examples in the video clips?

• The teacher completes the turn for the student.

• The teacher interrupts(打断 ) the student’s turn in order to correct.

• No negotiation(商量 ) of meaning is detectable via clarification requests(澄清 ), confirmation checks(确认 ).

• The teacher echoes(重复 ) the student response even if it is correct.• IRF (Initiate-Response-Feedback) turn-taking structure as the dominant (主要 )pattern.

The pupils “interactional” behaviors:

• the “reduction” behavior

• the “achievement” behavior

(Faerch and Kaspar, 1980, cited in Ellis, 1985).

Did you see both behaviors in the video clips?

the “reduction” behavior: the learner missing a turn by keeping silent, choosing to be out of the task by saying “no” or “I don’t know”, and other similar utterances, switching topics or imitating part or the whole of the teacher’s previous utterance.

the “achievement” behavior: learners respond actively to the teacher’s utterance by using their first language, miming, requesting assistance or guessing.

A demonstration lessonWork in groups and complete one of the following

tasks:

•Group 1: Count the time used for different types of interaction: PW, GW, IW, CW

•Group 2: Find out teachers’ interactional adjustment strategies

•Group 3: Find out pupils’ interactional behaviours

A demonstration lesson

•Group 4: Write down all the questions asked by the teacher and find out the features of this teacher.

•Group 5: Write down the language used for praise and feedback and comment on it.

Cross group discussion

Each person: 2’

Time limit: 15’

Let’s discuss what makes effective and dynamic interaction!Theory into practice:

Krashen Comprehensible input

Vygotsky ZPD (最近发展区 ) social interaction

Bruner Scaffolding (支架 )

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