Interaction in English language classrooms to

enhance students’ language learning

Chura Bahadur Thapa (chura@hku.hk) and Angel M. Y. Lin

(angellin@hku.hk)

Faculty of Education

The University of Hong Kong

Introduction

EFL contexts like Nepal seldom provide students with

opportunities for authentic communication in English.

Therefore, deliberate ‘interaction in the classrooms’ is

emerging as one of the leading conventions to enhance the

students’ linguistic resources as well as equipping them with

appropriate skills for communication. The major intent of this

entry is to share a teacher’s insider experiences of

developing interactions in an ESL classroom in Hong Kong while

fully recognizing that the contextual differences between Hong

Kong and Nepal will necessitate teachers’ own creative

adaptation or re-invention of whatever tips shared from

elsewhere. We shall, first of all, present the concept of

interaction from sociocultural perspectives and discuss

various challenges for the front-line EFL teachers to plan and

implement lessons that incorporate interactions in ESL or EFL

classrooms. Then, insider experiences of the first author of

this entry in overcoming those challenges are shared. Assuming

that the textbooks and teaching materials play a vital role to

promote and facilitate the interactions in classrooms, a

sample activity designed for the Secondary Two (Class 8) ESL

students in Hong Kong is also included and discussed.

Interaction in language classrooms

Classroom interaction has been considered one of the most

important pedagogical research topics in language classrooms

in recent decades, mostly due to the influence of the Russian

psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotskian sociocultural theory

(Hall & Walsh, 2002) views the act of language learning as a

social activity in which children build their knowledge

through the help and scaffolding of more knowledgeable peers

or teachers. Interactions in language classrooms are important

social activities for students through which they not only

construct knowledge, but also build confidence and identity as

competent language users (Luk & Lin, 2007). In an in-depth

ethnographic study of teacher-student interactions in Hong

Kong, Luk and Lin (2007) found out that students develop

multiple identities through their classroom interactions with

their language teachers. Although the study took place in an

ESL classroom where native English language teachers are

available, Luk and Lin (2007:188) present a telling story

about how students negotiate identity and cultural resources,

which are “translated into non-institutionally sanctioned

language practices and identities”. Perhaps, the social

knowledge students bring into the classrooms might be those

“non-institutional language practices”, which schools and

teachers are supposed to build on in order to enhance their

learning.

Interaction in the classroom refers to the conversation

between teachers and students, as well as among the students,

in which active participation and learning of the students

becomes vital. Conversations are part of the sociocultural

activities through which students construct knowledge

collaboratively. Conversations between and among various

parties in the classroom have been referred to as educational

talk (Mercer and Dawes, 2008) or “exploratory talk” and

“presentational talk” (Barnes, 2008:5). Presentational talk is

the one-way lecture conducted by the teachers in the

classroom, mostly featured in Nepalese EFL contexts, which

contributes little to encouraging and engaging students in a

communicative dialogue. Exploratory talk is a purposeful

conversation, often deliberately designed by teachers, which

provide opportunities to students to engage in “hesitant,

broken, and full of deadend” conversations enabling them to

“try out new ideas, to hear how they sound, to see what others

make of them, to arrange information and ideas into different

patterns” (Barnes, 2008:5). Given the limited linguistic

resources the EFL students possess in their school years in

EFL contexts like Nepal, these hesitant, broken and deadend

conversations could be developed into spontaneous

conversational skills. When students engage in interactions,

they produce “symmetric dialogic context” (Mercer & Dawes,

2008:66) where everyone can participate, get respected and get

the decisions made jointly. Students’ participation in

interactions, therefore, can help them enrich their linguistic

resources and build their confidence to communicate with

others in English.

Designing interaction: challenges and ways

ahead

When I started teaching English in a Hong Kong school, I

noticed that students in Hong Kong like to talk a lot. These

talks are often characterized as responses to the multiple

stimuli such as various gadgets and social media. To realize

the importance of students’ talks in their knowledge building

was a paradigm shift in me, as my high school days in Nepal

still remind me of the very quiet classrooms where often only

the teachers talked. The process of designing lessons with

meaningful interactions in my ESL classroom in Hong Kong posed

several challenges such as incorporating various forms of

interactions, achieving the lesson goals through such

interactions, participation of students in meaningful

interactions, and making sure that all the students engage in

conversations and learn from the teachers as well as from

themselves.

Secondly, of course students’ varying language abilities,

topics that generated the conversations among them and matched

their abilities presented a micro level challenges in managing

interactions. Students in my class came from diverse cultural

and linguistic backgrounds, and I believed that they brought

with them their own unique knowledge base. Their varying

English language ability might sound simple to some or

unnoticeable to others, but addressing them in the classroom

would very much influence how they view themselves and others

(Luk & Lin, 2007) and make them feel how their cultural and

linguistic knowledge base could be important in furthering

their academic journey.

To overcome the underlined challenges, I took a closer

look at other teachers’ practices and suggestions by

researchers (Jong & Hawley, 1995). I found Jong and Hawley’s

(1995) suggestions particularly setting up group roles,

teacher monitoring and evaluation, peer evaluation,

appropriate group size and configuration quite useful.

Assigning group roles and group configurations could be

thought during the planning stage. Teacher monitoring should

be conducted at the while-teaching stage, and teacher and peer

evaluations are elements to be incorporated at the post-

teaching stage. I often incorporated three stages of

interactions in my lessons.

1. Interaction of the students with the teacher (Teacher

Student Whole-Class Interaction): I often asked students

to respond to a certain question related to a emerging

topic or a topic that was already taught as part of the

whole-class interactions. For the responses, students

were randomly selected based on their ability, seating

arrangements, gender and cultural groups to make sure

that they all get represented in the interaction process.

2. Pair Interaction (Interaction with their peers sitting

together or next to them): This interaction often took

place during the pre-teaching stage, for example to

activate their schema on a topic. As part of assigning

group roles, students were usually asked to interact with

their partners on a topic given by the teacher and

present it to the whole class.

3. Group Interaction (Groups of 4-5 students): This form of

interaction often took place during the while-teaching

stage. After students read a text, for example in a

reading lesson, they could pick up a concept for

discussion. Their discussion could dwell on expanding the

practical meaning of the concept, finding solution to a

problem or bring up a creative issue out of the topic.

Based on Jong and Hawley’s (1995) suggestions, students’

roles were often divided based on the nature of the topic

such as a note taker, a facilitator, a presenter, and so

on. Assigning these roles was crucial to prevent the

students to digress from discussion their topics or and

contribute meaningfully in the whole learning process.

The idea of teacher monitoring took place during the process

of pair or group interactions. Teachers could evaluate the

extent and forms of interactions students conducted during the

process, and at the same time, provide feedback and support to

the weaker students. I often walked around the class and

monitored the students’ interactions to make sure that they

are up to the tasks and are supported when in need.

Timing the interactions was another important aspect

handling the students’ conversations purposefully and

meaningfully. I often gave the students 5-10 minutes to

interact among themselves and prepare a presentation poster or

speech. The timing depended on the topic’s extent of

difficulty and students’ ability as well.

Students were often asked to present the outcome of their

interaction to the whole class in poster or speech forms. In

order to ensure every students’ participation, they were

trained and assigned with roles to make contributions

individually even during group presentations. This was at this

stage that the teacher and peer evaluation took place. I often

adopted a range of techniques to evaluate students’

performances such as asking students to fill in an evaluation

rubric or asking students about their peers’ performances and

grade them on the board. Sometimes this process generated

heated debates and quarreling, friendly though; among the

students because they thought that some of their peers were

not evaluating them fairly.

The last, but not least, I also created teaching materials

and worksheets conducive to the diversity of the students

particularly in order to scaffold on their linguistic and

cultural resources. Textbooks nowadays are found incorporating

activities for some forms of interactions, but they often

become irrelevant in the classrooms because these textbooks

cannot address the range of students’ ability levels, skill

levels and their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Most

textbooks in Hong Kong, for example, incorporate elements of

Chinese and Christian festivals and ask the students to

interact on that. However, students from Nepal, Pakistan,

India, or Sri-Lanka in Hong Kong would not be able to use

their cultural resources and construct knowledge from the

interactions. Although English language textbooks in Hong Kong

are considered to be the most advanced resources for ESL

students, modifications often needed to suit to my students’

needs. These changes sometimes also needed to address the

students’ willingness and skills to spontaneously engage in

interactions. For example, some students in my class were very

poor in English and found it hard to even properly construct

questions to ask their friends, while others were at a native

English speaker’ level.

Taking these questions into consideration, we present an

activity (Activity 1) that can potentially be used to promote

pair interactions in an EFL classroom. This activity is a

modified activity from a secondary two (Class 8) English

language textbook in Hong Kong, which is believed to suit

students with moderate English ability. The moderate language

ability in this context is the students’ ability to use

connectives and quantifiers in authentic situations. This

activity incorporates multicultural elements in the context of

Nepal as it contains pictures of various Nepali festivals as

well as Western festivals such as Christmas. Students can ask

their peers about their likes or dislikes and jot down their

answers to present to the class. Phrases given in the boxes

are meant to cater for learner diversity. For higher

proficiency students, this activity can be presented in a

different way to suit their levels.

______________________________________________________________

_____________

Activity 1:

Worksheet A

1. Study the pictures in the boxes in pairs. Ask questions to

your friend about items that he/she prefers or doesn’t prefer

more (or less) and why. Write your friend’s responses in the

checklist at the bottom.

You may begin like this: Which festivals do you like

more/less/most/least? Why?

………………………………………………………………………..

Check List

2. Write your friend’s answers below. You may need to present

it to the class.

Foods: Roti, turkey,

Briyani,Khichadi, yam,

Festivities/Customs:

Christmas gifts,meeting relatives, putting flower garlands and tika, going to Mosque, Archery,Kauda Dance,

Dashain

Id-Ul-FitrMaghe

Sakranti

SakelaLhosar

* My friend likes ___________________________ more, because

________________

* My friend likes __________________________less, because

___________________

______________________________________________________________

________

* He/She likes ___________________________ the most, because

________________

______________________________________________________________

________

* My friend likes ___________ the least, because

______________________________

Conclusion

This entry presented the concept of interaction from a

sociocultural perspective sharing the first author’s teaching

experiences in a Hong Kong school. The sharing included the

challenges as well as possible strategies a teacher might

adopt to devise, implement and evaluate interactions in an EFL

classroom. The sharing could present a model for EFL teachers

to choose from many other pedagogical options in order to

enhance the students’ English language learning. The activity

presented in this entry is only one example of hundreds of

such possible activities. The original activity might not be

suitable to adopt exactly in Nepalese EFL classes, as there

are diversities in terms of language, culture, students’

abilities as well as available resources based on geography,

developmental level and proximity to urban life. Teachers need

to bear in mind that they understand their students the best

and they need to know how students can best interact and learn

the language in the classroom.

(Word: 2039)

Contributors:

1- Mr. Chura Bahadur Thapa:

Chura Bahadur Thapa is a PhD Student in the Faculty of

Education at The University of Hong Kong. He was an English

language teacher in a local college in Hong Kong for almost 7

years before joining HKU as a postgraduate student. He is

currently researching the language learning and motivation of

ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. His other research

interests include- education of ethnic minorities, linguistic

and cultural identity, intercultural communication,

citizenship education.

2- Dr. Angel Lin:

Angel Lin received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto,

Canada. She is an Associate Professor of English Language

Education at the University of Hong Kong.  Well-respected for

her versatile interdisciplinary scholarship in language and

identity studies, bilingual education, and youth cultural

studies, she has published six research books and over eighty

research articles.

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London, New Delhi: SAGE, 1-15.

Hall, J.K. & Walsh, M. (2002). Teacher-student interaction and

language learning. Annual

Review of Applied Linguistics, 22, 186-203.

Jong, C.D. & Hawley, J. (1995). Making cooperative learning

groups work. Middle

School Journal, 26 (4), 45-48.

Luk, J.C.M. & Lin, A.M.Y. (2007). Classroom interactions as cross-

cultural encounters.

Native speakers in EFL classrooms. Mahwah, New Jersey, London:

Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Mercer, N. & Dawes, L. (2008). The value of exploratory talk.

In Mercer, N. &

Hodgkinson, S. (Eds.). Exploring talk in schools. Los Angeles,

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