An Analysis of Interaction Patterns in a Korean Elementary English Classroom

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the interaction patterns between the teacher and students or among students themselves in a Korean elementary English classroom by analysing classroom talk and by focusing on the types of the teacher’s questions and feedback as well as the use of L1 and L2. This analysis is used to determine the influence of such interaction on the students’ communicative skills in English. A female teacher in Gyeonggi province and a 6th-grade class participated in the data collection. This study included data from video or audio recordings, interviews, field notes, self-assessments, and portfolios. The transcribed data were analysed using Tsui’s (1994) framework and Verplaetse’s (1995, 2000) coding system. The results of this analysis indicated that the interaction patterns varied between participants into three groups: teacher-initiated talk (e.g., T-S talk) vs students-initiated talk (e.g., S-T talk & S-S talk). At the beginning stage of lesson, the teacher-initiated talk made up the majority of talk in English, and facilitated the students’ involvement in classroom learning including their language use. In the S-S talk, the students were involved in interaction which occurred naturally without the teacher’s control.