Mediative Functions among China’s EFL Teachers in Interactive Classrooms

Abstract

This paper provides a conceptual framework that English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers can use to execute mediation in the language classroom, which draws on research works and articles related to effective procedures based on construction of knowledge during teacher-student and student-student interactions. In process of construction of learners' knowledge, the EFL teacher should play the role of mediator from the perspective of social constructivism. As such, this paper tries to elucidate EFL teachers' mediation functions which bring into play learners' potentials to the full in the case of the following four aspects: (a) the teacher as mediator interacting with learners, (b) the teacher as mediator facilitating student-student interactions, (c) the teacher as mediator developing interactive tasks or activities, and (d) the teacher as mediator generating interactive settings. It concludes with a discussion on some implications of mediation functions in EFL learning.