Classroom Interaction in Oral Language Learning Events Created by EFL Storytelling-based Games

Klaudia Gąsior

doi:10.17951/nh.2019.4.35-51

Abstract

The paper aims at discussing some examples of classroom interaction in the context of playing “One Word/Sentence at a Time” and “Story Cubes” games by Polish secondary school students of English. First, it gives an overview of definitions and major types of classroom interaction. Second, it presents the opportunities for classroom interaction offered by a game-like environment. Then, the action research study conducted with a group of EFL learners is presented. The participants were recorded in the course of storytelling-oriented lessons and their stories were transcribed. Summing up the data gathered throughout the study, it is evident that the games offer a highly interactive FL classroom environment in which various categories of student-talk intertwine with teacher-talk.

Highlights

There has been little agreement among researchers as to the investigation of the concept of classroom interaction1
Summing up the data gathered throughout the study, it is evident that the games offer a highly interactive FL classroom environment in which various categories of student-talk intertwine with teacher-talk
The objectives of the paper are as follows: (1) to provide an overview of the definitions and types of classroom interaction; (2) to list the examples of interaction supported by games and, (3) to enumerate the types of classroom interaction created by the games mentioned above

Summary

Introduction

There has been little agreement among researchers as to the investigation of the concept of classroom interaction. What academics unanimously agree upon is that classroom interaction is an important component of learning and teaching Even though the significance of meaningful communication in a foreign language classroom has been widely discussed by theoreticians, there is a persevering problem that daunts most language classrooms. It concerns overwhelming dominance of a teacher over his or her students who are usually given freedom to utter only single, one-word or one-sentence, utterances (Van Lier 1988, 3). The actual teaching that should encompass an exchange of knowledge and experiences between learners and teachers is, replaced with nothing but, as Beutel (2010, 80) defines it, “content deliv-

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