Promoting Student Interaction

IST Workshop Agadir ELT Inspectorate

December, 2015

Abdellatif ZoubairEmail: [email protected]

Web: www. zoubaireltcommunity.ac.mawww.zoubaireltcommunity.wix.com/

eduresources

IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

mailto:[email protected]

¤Agenda: 1. Define the concept of interaction; 2. Identify the main interaction

patterns; 3. State the merits of student

interaction; 4. List the potential challenges

hindering student interaction; 5. Discuss ways of promoting student interaction; 6. Try out some of the ideas suggested; 7. Decide on practical

recommendations. IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

1. “Interaction refers to the different ways learners and the teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . in class”

2. “Interaction is the . . . . . . . . . . . . between teachers and students, as well as among the . . . . . . . . . . . . , in which active . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . of the students become vital.”


I. Complete the definitions below with the appropriate words:

II. Explain the interaction patterns below:

1. TTT, STT, TTQ (Harmer, 2007)

2. I-R-F (Nunan 1987)

3. Class-T, Class ‘Mingle, Small groups,

Pairs, Individual work (Scrivener, 2007)

4. T-Ss, S-S, Ss-Ss, Ss-T, S-Ss


III. Why is student-student interaction desirable?

1. Participation Most people agree that learning anything

involves participation. Teachers need, therfore to promote learner interaction in order to help the learners succeed.

2. Maximising practice time Learners need to be provided with maximum

opportunities to practise if they are to be successful.


3. Collaboration Collaborative learning can foster language

development since learners can see a reason to use language in order to interact.

4. Socialisation Interaction does not only promote language

development but it also fosters social skills as well (e.g. politeness, respect for others) that people need to operate successfully in any culture.


Zoubair1

5. Motivation Interaction gives learners the opportunity to

use language successfully and to measure their progress which in turn should lead to an increase in motivation.

Source: Patrick Howarth, Teacher, Trainer, PortugalSource:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/increasing-student-interaction




IV. List potential challenges hindering student interaction: (A) teacher talk?

1. When you talk too much then the chances are the students aren’t being given maximum opportunity to talk.

2. It’s also likely that you won’t be listening to the students closely enough, thinking too much about what you’re going to say next.

3. If you talk ‘for’ the students they will think you don’t appreciate their efforts and will become demotivated.

4. There is a danger, especially at lower levels, that the language you use for the explanation is more difficult to understand than the language being learned.

Source ( Gower,2005)IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction,

Dec. 2015

1. Student resistance: It is unfortunately true that some learners are not enthusiastic about pair and group work.

2. Self-consciousness: Many learners become very

nervous and embarrassed when asked to speak English.

3. Large classes: The more learners there are in a class, the more difficult developing interaction can be since there are more people to monitor and, therefore, more chances of problems.


IV. List potential challenges hindering student interaction: ( B)

4. Mixed abilities: Managing interaction is more difficult in classes that have a wide variety of levels than in small classes of a homogenous level.

5. Lack of motivation: If learners have no need to interact or don't want to, they probably won't.

6. Insufficient language: Many students feel they don't have the language they need to interact and, therefore, to complete the task successfully.

Source / Patrick Howarth, Teacher, Trainer, Portugal


V. ( A) Suggest alternative ways that can help promote student interaction:

1.Teaching process language :This refers to the language that students need to interact. We can introduce that before starting tasks and leave useful phrases on the board so learners can refer to them while speaking. They can also copy them into their record books as well.

2.Pre-teaching task language:Try to predict what language is critical to task achievement and pre-teach it.


3.Providing support: Try to provide ideas too. These can be brainstormed before the task and put on the board so that learners have plenty of things to talk about.

4.Giving preparation time : Quite often interaction breaks down because learners haven't had time to think about what they want to say and how to say it.

5.Providing a supportive atmosphere: Give enough praise and feedback on task achievement as well as language use.


6.Varying the interaction and repeating tasks: Move students around so that they are not always talking to the same partner. You may ask students to perform the same task a number of times but each time with a different partner.

7.Having different levels of task: Prepare an easy, medium, and difficult version of the same task so students of different levels can interact together at a level appropriate to their language level.

8.Providing a reason to interact: Provide the learners with a reason to speak and listen. Information gap activities are a good example of these.


http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/find-gap-increasing-speaking-class

• Encourage a friendly, relaxed learning environment.

• Ask questions rather than giving explanations.

• Allow time for students to listen, think, process their answer and speak.

• Really listen to what they say. Let what they say really affect what you do next. Work on listening to the person and the meaning, as well as to the language and the mistakes.

• Allow thinking time without talking over it. Allow silence.

• Increase opportunities for STT (Student Talking Time).


V. (B) Maximising student interaction in class :

• Use gestures and facial expressions to replace unnecessary teacher talk.

• Allow students to finish their own sentences.

• Make use of pairs and small groups to maximise opportunities for students to speak.

• If possible, arrange seating so that students can all see each other and talk to each other (ie circles, squares and horse

• Remember that you don’t always need to be at the front of the class. Try out seating arrangements that allow the whole class to be the focus (e. g. you take one seat in a circle).


• If a student is speaking too quietly for you to hear, walk further away, rather than closer to them!

• Encourage interaction between students rather than only between student and you, and you and student. Get students to ask questions, give explanations, etc to each other, rather than always to you.

• Keep a diagram like the one in Figure 3.3 in your head as a possible alternative to the one in Figure 3.2. Think ‘How can I get students speaking and listening to each other as well as to me.



Source (Scrivener, J. 2007)

IST workshop, Promoting Interaction, Dec. 2015

VI. Micro-teaching: refer to the latest lesson you taught and present an activity using some of the ideas above: Refer to the video links :Video n° 1 Fatima Zahra Outtaleb

https://youtu.be/YCesvgRLSng

Video n° 2 Bouchaib Lbrikihttps://youtu.be/L84YOjO8CTU

Video n° 3 Kamal El Chaoui El Ghorhttps://youtu.be/cd21JCjM8Kw

Video n° 4 Samira Oulkadihttps://youtu.be/cRB9DnGDjZQ

https://youtu.be/YCesvgRLSng

https://youtu.be/L84YOjO8CTU

https://youtu.be/cd21JCjM8Kw

https://youtu.be/cRB9DnGDjZQ


VII. Time for reflection: how will today’s workshop impact my teaching practices starting tomorrow? refer to the video link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0K6ACa3Pco

.

.

.

.




REFERENCES:Gower, R. et al. 2005. Teaching Practice. Macmillan.Harmer, J. 2007. How to Teach English. Pearson

Longman. Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of English

LanguageTeaching. Pearson Longman Fourth Edition.

Nunan, D. 1987. Communicative Language Teaching: Making it Work, in ELT Journal, 41/2: 136-145.

Richards, Jack C. & Scmidt, R. 2010. Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman.

Scrivener, J. 2007. Learning Teaching. Longman.

Agadir ELT Inspectorate

Academic year 2015-2016


Promoting Student Interaction

Education

Transcript of Promoting Student Interaction