Teacher talk and classroom interaction
Your trainer
Wendy Arnold
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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?
Teacher talk
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
questions
and answers
dialogue
role play
PAIRWORK
projects
GROUPWORK
games
songs/chants
WHOLE CLASS
surveys
DID YOUR LIST LOOK LIKE THIS?
TEACHER TALK
giving instructions
asking and answering questions
Comprehensible
input
(可理解性输入)
Comprehensible
output
(可理解性输出)
Interaction
Interaction
Input
Output
Language
Acquisition(语言习
得)
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. Repeating
2. Simplifying questions
3. Switching to Chinese
4. Setting an example
What do you think
of these strategies?
Have you
identified other
strategies in the
video clips?
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.”
Output and interactional adjustments
The most commonly used strategies to elicit language output
are:
1. Provide the beginning of a sentence and let pupils continue.
Elicit by starting the sentence: For example: “Here’s
the……”
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?
Have you
identified other
strategies in the
video clips?
Walsh (2002, cited Wacaro, 2003:198) identified a number of
features which obstructed(阻碍) learning potential(潜力).
• 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.
Can you give examples in the
video clips?
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 lesson
Work 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)
Want to have another look...?
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