Teacher-Learner Interaction in Language Learning - Assignment Example

LANGUAGE USE AND LANGUAGE LEARNING ASSIGNMENT Introduction Purpose The aim of this assignment is to analyse teacher-learner interaction in a teacher-led activity in a class room. This paper also discusses how this activity influences a student's opportunity to learn language in the classroom. Additionally this paper also highlights the responses a teacher gets based on theories of second language acquisition and their contribution to language learning. Scope The scope of this paper is limited to a particular teacher teaching a specific course in a constant environment. Since a lot of factors including the nature, style and background of teacher and students matter, this case shouldn't be seen as a case for all scenarios. Furthermore other variables such as the environment, time and situation at the time of this study may not be constant through the ages. Background Information This report analyzes a study conducted to learn about teacher-student interaction. the lecture is given to students of grade 3 who are learning English as their second language. The teacher is a Pakistani national teaching in the Grammar School whose first language is Urdu. Method of Data Analysis and Results Data were analysed using grounded theory methodology following a step by step process. The teacher and student interaction was recorded and transcribed to be processed further. First a set of descriptive categories which were representative of classroom dynamics and interaction were identified. Initiation-Response-Evaluation, Forms of Feedbacks and Types of elicitation were identified. This helped in identifying the features and patterns of interaction in the class room. I-R-E Mehan (1979) studied classroom dynamics and analysed the language used during classroom both by the teacher and the student. The interaction between the two sides was analysed as function role it played during a lesson. He discovered that teachers initiate an elicitation, the students respond, and then there is an evaluative interaction. These interactions were labelled Initiate-Response-Evaluate (IRE). In our classroom, the findings are similar. Most of the times, it is the teacher who initiates the conversation and acts as the guide to the topic. However the environment in the classroom is such that students are free to ask any questions they want. And this independence is vital for learning. Response rate of the students is on the slower side, but this response latency can be a cause of stage fear and fear of public speaking in some students. In the transcript two concepts of learner repair can be seen from the responding side. First there is 'correction' from the teacher asking the student to repeat the text in the correct way. Then there is 'peer-repair' in which another student responds to the first student. This again re-emphasizes the openness being observed in the classroom as even students are encouraged to answer the queries. Evaluation took place after an initiation of the question had been responded by the student. The evaluation was usually accompanied by a question so that the teacher could properly understand the student's level of comprehension and in cases, to aid in further comprehension. Forms of Feedback Some of the forms of feedback that have been identified as being used by the teacher in this study are from-related comment, explicit correction and clarification. Form-related comment refers to positive or negative response (not correction) to previous statement. The use of a positive word 'good' is an example of this. Explicit correction refers to any linguistic correction of a previous utterance. The correction of 'he-stant' to 'hesitant' is an example of this. Clarification is a request from the student to the teacher or vice-versa to explain or clarify something. The example of clarification is students asking the meaning of certain words. Types of Elicitation Mehan (1979) identified four types of elicitations in the instructional phase of the lessons analysed. These elicitations help us know the teacher's methodology of teaching. Questions that show choice elicitations demand the student to agree or disagree with a statement provided by the teacher. The occurrence of this is the second highest in our class (25%) signifying that the teacher wants short to the point answers. Error Treatment Sequence Source: (Lyster & Ranta, 1997, p. 44) Product elicitations require students to provide factual responses. These are most commonly used in our class (62%). This shows the teacher's inclination to be heard rather than to hear. Process elicitations calls for students' opinions or interpretations. These are very important since they elicit creative and opinionated ideas that have the capacity to be discussed, debated and judged. In our example the teacher tries a bit to add the student's opinions to make the subject more interesting but these questions are very rare (13%). Metaprocess elicitations ask students to reflect upon the process of making connections between elicitations and responses to formulate the grounds of their reasoning. The teacher could have expanded upon the process elicitation to include metaprocess elicitation as well, however, the teacher decided not to involve the class deeply into the subject matter (0%) Identified Features and Patterns The teacher is identified as a critic since more emphasis is laid on correction rather than form related comments. Also the teacher tries to involve the students in the class by creating an open environment, but the interactions are only draw out factual responses rather than giving a chance to the students to stimulate their creativity. Discussion The features and patterns identified in the last section indicate that students are involved in a critical learning experience but lacking in generating creative ideas. Such an emphasis on learning can be caused by the fact that English as a second language is being taught and that the focus is on the content of learning rather than on its practicality. Also because the first language is known by most students, it is easier for the teacher to explain things by referring to words in Urdu if some English word could not be understood. However as students are not proficient in the second language, they don't ask for clarifications that often fearing that the teacher would criticise them thus the student takes a passive role as a learner. The teacher on the other hand takes a more dominating role. While a student who learns the first language informally (at home), learns quicker. "Wells (ibid, p 25), in a study conducted comparing children's language at home and at school, found that children in school speak much less with adults than at home since they get fewer speaking turns and ask fewer questions. The meanings that they express are of a much smaller range and sentences they use are syntactically much simpler. The reason is that the teachers do most of the talking in the classroom, determine the topic of talk, and initiate most of the questions and requests." Usually in teacher led activities, like the one mentioned in this case, the teacher remains the dominator. Such interaction makes the student learn the language in its theoretical sense. Usually the students memorize dialogues and repeat them when required. Pattern drills are also used to memorize how to respond to certain questions. However substituting these patterns in other sentences cause grammar mismatch and usually spontaneity is lost along with the student's creative capability. However it is important to note that none of the feedback types stop the flow of classroom interaction and communicative flow is not disrupted. Since communication is the key to learning, an interactive session by the teacher is maintained. Conclusion Learning a new language is never easy especially if the second language being learnt is not the dominating language in the region. But the most important thing is level of interaction in the classroom which plays a crucial role in the development of second language proficiency. As Van Lier (1988, p. 77-78) points out: "If the keys to learning are exposure to input and meaningful interaction with other speakers, we must find out what input and interaction the classroom can provide...We must study in detail the use of language in the classroom in order to see if and how learning comes about through the different ways of interacting in the classroom." The teacher in our case is more of an 'old-school' teacher who focuses on a more dominating presence in the classroom. The teacher lays more emphasis on the content of the language being learnt to be correct while its correct application is not paid that importance. Therefore the teacher corrects and repairs the sentence and grammar rather than giving form related comments about the sentence. Interactions are limited to draw out only factual responses through product and choice elicitations rather than giving a chance to the students to give their own opinions and explain the reason for their opinions. To stimulate proper learning, it is important to involve the students more deeply into the content by increasing the level of interaction and communication. The use of process and metaprocess elicitations will greatly help this goal to be achieved but in order to do that the teachers should have a lot of patience to restrains themselves to listen rather than speak. References 1. Lyster, R; Ranta, L (1997), "Corrective feedback and learner uptake", SSLA, n. 19, p.37-66 2. Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: social organization in the classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 3. Van Lier, L. (1988), "The Classroom and the Language Learner", London: Longman 4. Wells, G (1986), "The Meaning Makers", London: Hodder and Stoughton Appendix Transcript I-R-E Sequence Types of Elicitation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 T: I'd like to ask any one student to come up here and read the chapter number 4 on page number 59! Students (whole class): (quite) T: Anyone S1: I will. (stands up and goes to the podium) S1: (reaches the podium) where should I start from T: Page 59 last paragraph S1: there are no paragraphs on this page, ma'am! T: The longer breaks between the lines identify the paragraphs, Joe! Please start reading from "Mary was a shy kid" S1: "Mary was a shy kid in school. She was intelligent but she was 'he-stant' T: Hesitant! S1: "... she was hesitant to ask questions. She had a beautiful glowing face blue eyes blushing cheeks and always wore red." T: you read well Joe, but you have to pause for the commas in the sentence! S2: Ma'am, what are commas T: Commas are punctuation marks that indicate a short pause in a sentence. The sentence that Joe read should have some pauses. It should be read like "She had a beautiful glowing face, blue eyes, blushing cheeks and always wore red" T: Okay students, what did you understand S3: That Mary was a beautiful girl. T: and what else S3: and she wore red. T: why did you think she wore red S1: red was her favorite color. S5: she only had red clothes T: wasn't she shy too S2: What is shy, ma'am S3: Being shy is 'sharmaana' in Urdu. S2: Ohhh. T: True. Shy is called 'sharmaana' in our Urdu language. In English, being shy it is be low on confidence. T: Do you know what confidence is I R E/I R I R R E/R E E R I R E/I R E/I R R E/I R R R I Product Product Product Product Product Process Choice Choice I-R-E = I - Initiation, R - Response, E - Evaluation Types of Elicitation = Product, Process, Choice and Metaprocess Read More