Classroom Interaction in Teaching English as Foreign Language at Lower Secondary Schools in Indonesia

Hanna Sundari

doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.6p.147

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a deep understanding of interaction in language classroom in foreign language context. Interviews, as major instrument, to twenty experienced English language teachers from eight lower secondary schools (SMP) were conducted in Jakarta, completed by focus group discussions and class observation/recordings. The gathered data was analyzed according to systematic design of grounded theory analysis method through 3-phase coding. A model of classroom interaction was formulated defining several dimensions in interaction. Classroom interaction can be more comprehended under the background of interrelated factors: interaction practices, teacher and student factors, learning objectives, materials, classroom contexts, and outer contexts surrounding the interaction practices. The developed model of interaction for language classroom is notably to give deep descriptions on how interaction substantially occurs and what factors affect it in foreign language classrooms at lower secondary schools from teachers’ perspectives.

Highlights

Classroom interaction has been a central issue in teaching and learning English in the era of communicative language teaching
The developed model of interaction for language classroom is notably to give deep descriptions on how interaction substantially occurs and what factors affect it in foreign language classrooms at lower secondary schools from teachers’ perspectives
The collecting and analyzing data was a zigzag process, taking back and forth to constantly reexamine the old and new data, categories and developed model. It is firstly reported the description of the core category emerged from the data, labelled as classroom interaction practices

Summary

Introduction

Classroom interaction has been a central issue in teaching and learning English in the era of communicative language teaching. A number of articles and books related to comprehensible input, output, and interaction in second language acquisition (Ellis, 1991; Krashen, 1989; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991; Mackey, Abbuhl, & Gass, 2012; Swain, 2000) have given great contributions for language teaching and learning. In the field of second language acquisition, negotiation of meaning through modified input occurs in interactional conversation. Conversational negotiation and linguistic adjustment provides comprehensible input that is integrated into acquired language (Mayo & Soler, 2013). According to (Ellis, 1991), second language is acquired in 3 phases. The first is noticing linguistic features (input) related to shortterm memory and perception; the input is called an

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion