On Classroom Interaction in English Teaching

【Abstract】Classroom interaction， can stimulate students interest， guide them to build their own knowledge system actively， and also improve their academic performance. This paper， based on the definition and advantages of interaction， first analyzes the problems with classroom English teaching， and then puts forward corresponding suggestions.

【Key words】Classroom Interaction; English Teaching; Problems; Suggestions

【作者簡介】顧慧萍（1967-），女，漢族，山東臨沂人，臨沂大學(xué)，副教授，碩士，研究方向：英語教學(xué)。

1. Introduction

Nowadays， interaction has become very important for classroom English teaching and learning， for one thing， traditional English teaching needs a new teaching method; for another， interaction can fully achieve the classroom dynamic generation， stimulating classroom vitality.

“Interaction” was arisen in the 1970s， and is widely used in the western countries at present. Rivers （2000）， professor of Harvard University， considered that language teaching is a kind of interactive activity. The function of the teachers is to create opportunities and environment for students to have an effective use of the target language. Harmer （2000） considered that the way of second language acquisition is interaction. Richards （2005） further points out that the interactive activities play a very important role in students second language acquisition.

China began to introduce and put “interaction” into experimental study from the late 1980s. Compared with the foreign researchers， Chinese still has something more to do on the studies of classroom interaction in English teaching.

2. Interaction and Its Advantages in English Teaching

（1） The Definition of Interaction. According to Brown （2001）， “Interaction is the collaborative interchange of ideology， feelings， or concepts between two or more people， resulting in ideas between two or more people， resulting in a mutual effect on each other”. Therefore， English language teaching is a big project between teachers and students. If the students do not participate in the classroom activities， the teachers teaching cannot be effective.

（2） Advantages of Interaction in English Teaching.

1）Giving Opportunities to Communication. Interaction plays an important role in an English class， which provides the possibility for the teacher and the students to share and exchange ideas. Lyster and Mori （2006） stressed that in facilitating the second language， interaction has done a lot. Richards （2005） pointed out that Interactional opportunities can improve the quality of language learning. Interaction can offer enough opportunities for the students to communicate indeed .

2） Stimulating Students Interest in Learning. Interest is the inner motive power of learning. Having interest in learning， students will think and explore spontaneously， and they will be eager to interact with the teacher. Good interaction between teachers and students can stimulate students interest in learning， on the other hand， stimulating students interest in learning can promote the interaction between teachers and students.

3）Improving the Quality of Teaching. With the interactive teaching mode between teachers and students， students become the masters of their own study （Tsui， 1995）. The teachers role is to teach the students how to learn and give guidance if the students are having difficulties in learning. Thus， the students potential ability can be exerted and their learning ability can be stimulated. According， the teaching quality will be improved.

（3） Strengthening the Relationship between Teachers and Students. A very important form of interaction is group discussion. In an English class， if the students dont want to interact with the teacher， or the teacher just makes “monologue” teaching activities， the classroom will be the teachers own class. Otherwise， if the class is left completely to the students， the teacher cannot play the role of teaching and guiding. Both way will do harm to the relationship between teachers and students. With group discussion， the relationship between teachers and students is established through smoothly teaching activities （Collins， 2012）.

3. Problems with Classroom English Teaching

（1）Teacher-centered Classrooms.In traditional English teaching， teachers are the centre of the classroom. The teachers keep talking and the students keep listening and repeating. The teachers think more about what they are going to teach but think little about the needs of their students， and they dont encourage their students to think for themselves. In this way， the students have little enthusiasm in English learning and they dont have any choices to make their own progress.

（2） Students Learning English without Motivation. Students do not like to be lectured but want to be involved in presentations and actions. But in traditional English l teaching， teachers pay little attention to motivating students， and they do not understand what their students think or want to express. Day by day， the students lose all their enthusiasm towards English learning.

（3） Students Lacking Learning Interest. Every student wants to be focused on and gain success. This is reflected on the students desire for the recognition of their teachers and classmates. But sometimes words from their teachers may affect students deeply which also cause the students to lose interest and confidence.

（4） Limited Teaching Materials. It is obviously to say that teaching materials play an important role for fostering and shaping the students interests in English learning. What should be stressed is that， some teachers rely on the PPT so much that they even want to put every thing in it. They do not want to use other teaching materials， even the textbook. This is a phenomenon to be dealt with urgently.

4. Suggestions for Classroom Interaction in English Teaching

With the drawbacks of traditional English teaching， some suggestions should be put forward to improve English teaching.

（1） Organizing Active English Classes. In an active English class， the teacher can organize different activities for the students to act and perform. In this way， the students can feel at ease with the teachers， feel at home with each other， and can also feel good about themselves. The best ways to make a comfortable classroom is to help the students to feel not inhibited about using their facial gestures， body movement， and expressions.

（2）Motivating the Students Timely. It is very useful to motivate the students timely in the teaching and learning process. When the students are doing an activity， the teacher should walk around the classroom and be a monitor to superintend what the students are saying and doing. Only in this way can the students be kept in high spirits so that they can be more interested in learning English.

（3） Stimulating Students Learning Interests. In order to stimulate the students learning interests， group discussion should be widely used. In the time given， all the groups talk about their own topics， and then exchanges ideas with others. In this case， the teachers should guide the students how to continue the conversations by themselves， and encourage the students to speak freely. Then step by step， the students will gain confidence to communicate naturally with others.

（4） Using Authentic Materials. Authentic materials can be used to make interaction more true-to-life and motivate communication in the interactive classroom， Here are some authentic materials to promote interaction：

Videos and Movies： videos or movies can offer a rich source of information about the language used in the western culture as a social interaction and tool of communication. It can bring a lot of fun to watch a film or a video in the classroom. In this way， the students will have very deep understanding of the western culture.

Newspapers and Magazines： After reading magazines and newspapers of native speakers， the students would learn a lot more about the culture， customs， economy， politics and literature of the English world which may broaden the students minds.

5. Conclusion

According to the analysis above， interaction is playing an important part in English teaching.

Considering the contemporary English teaching， there need to do a lot to make a high quality of English acquisition. There still exist problems with English teaching， such as the teacher-centered classrooms， students learning English without motivation， students lacking learning interests and limited teaching materials. As a matter of fact， in this kind of teaching procession， the interaction between the teachers and students， students and students is depressing all the time.

In the interactive classroom， except for stimulating the students to communicate， the teachers should only use English to organize activities and interact with the students. In addition， in order to promote interaction， the English language teaching should be imbued with an atmosphere of harmoniousness and liveliness. Besides， stimulating the students interest and using authentic materials will help to promote interaction of the English language teaching. As a result of such interactive teaching， the students will become more enthusiastic and creative to master the language.

References：

[1]Brown， H. D. （2001）. Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[2]Collins， C. （2012）. The Interactional Classroom. London： Collins Co-build Press.

[3]Harmer， J. （2000）. How to Teach English. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

[4]Lyster， R. & Mori， H. （2006）. Interactional Feedback and Instructional Counterbalance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition， 28， 269-300.

[5]River， M. W. （2000）. Interaction Language Teaching. Beijing： Peoples Education Press.

[6]Richards， J. （2005）. Communicative Language Teaching Today. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press.

[7]Tsui. （1995）. Student Talk. Introducing Classroom Interaction， 3， 81-101.