Classroom Interactional Competence Research Articles

Teachers’ multimodal resources for delegated peer repair: Maximizing interactional space in whole‐class interaction in the foreign language classroom

AbstractIn classrooms, teachers play a fundamental role in managing students’ participation. As part of their classroom interactional competence to maximize interactional space for students’ learning, teachers use multimodal resources to orchestrate turn‐taking, allocate the next speaker, and manage repair sequences. However, little is known about how teachers employ these resources to engage learners in delegated peer repair, that is, repair sequences initiated by a student and solved by another classmate. Adopting a multimodal conversation analysis approach, this study aims to investigate how Spanish‐as‐a‐foreign‐language teachers multimodally manage delegated peer repair in whole‐group interaction by increasing interactional space to promote students’ participation. The findings show that teachers often resort to embodied resources such as gaze, gestures (pointing), and hand and body movements (stepping backward) to engage students in delegated peer repair, leading to increased student participation and autonomy. We end with some reflections on the relevance of the adopted methodology for better understanding how teachers employ multimodal resources to create interactional space and engage students in delegated peer repair, thus promoting learners’ interactional competence in the foreign language. It also suggests some potential implications for teachers’ professional development.

A Conversation Analytic Study on Scaffolding Strategies Applied in an Online English Class

In higher education, it is anticipated that English students should possess both proficiency in language and the capacity for critical thinking. Nonetheless, the dynamics of English as foreign language (EFL) classrooms often reveal a tendency for teachers to exert significant control over the class. Thus, this study aims to discover the scaffolding strategies applied by the teacher in an online EFL class in terms of classroom interactional competence (CIC). The participants were twelve English preparatory class students studying at A2 level of a state university in Türkiye. The majority of the students were Turkish and one of them was Somalian. They were enrolled in the same class. In the application process, the Microsoft Teams educational platform was used, and the lesson was conducted synchronously through this platform. The lesson lasted ninety minutes. By adopting a conversational analysis (CA) approach, a ninety-minute online English class was critically examined within the scope of Walsh’s (2006) self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT) framework and concept of CIC. The interaction was analyzed by specifically focusing on scaffolding mechanism. According to the findings, the teacher was found to apply restating, reformulation, inviting participation from students, providing explanation, modelling, extension, further explaining students’ understanding and checking scaffolding strategies.

Classroom interaction in an online context: A translanguaging informed conversation analysis perspective

This study aims to investigate the mode-divergent practices of pre-service teachers in an online context. Firstly, 16 h of classroom interaction is analyzed via Conversation Analysis utilizing the Classroom Interactional Competence framework. Then, the translanguaging pedagogy perspective complements this analysis by focusing on linguistic, social, and psychological aspects. The conversation-analytical findings demonstrate the failures in constructive alignment, and an inordinate amount of wasted time with no satisfying results has been observed. It is shown that translanguaging pedagogy may support the creative, critical, and strategic utilization of bilingual students' entire repertoires in classroom practices. Overall, the analysis demonstrates how translanguaging pedagogies can inform mode-divergent practices in classrooms by which teachers’ interactional competence may be improved.

Classroom interactional competence in an English medium instruction mathematics classroom: A creation of a technology-mediated translanguaging space

BackgroundSecond language classroom research has explored how teachers demonstrate their classroom interactional competence (CIC). CIC focuses on teachers’ ability to use appropriate language to mediate students’ learning and promote learning opportunities. Research on translanguaging has highlighted how teachers and students mobilise diverse multilingual, multimodal and spatial repertoires to collectively construct meaning in classroom interactions. Aims and samplesBased on a larger linguistic ethnographic project in a Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary mathematics classroom, this paper adopts a case study approach in order to examine how the teacher’s use of iPad expands his choice for using different multimodal repertoire to mediate and assist students’ learning of academic language and mathematical knowledge. MethodsMultimodal Conversation Analysis is deployed to analyse the classroom interaction data and it is triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. ResultsIt is evident in the findings that the construction of a technology-mediated space displays the English- Medium-Instruction teacher’s CIC, harnessing the available semiotic repertoires afforded by the iPad in order to achieve his pedagogical goals. ConclusionsI argue that the notion of CIC can be conceptualised through adopting translanguaging as an analytical perspective, which highlights the teacher’s ability in orchestrating technological affordances for creating an interactional space for student learning. Such a conceptualisation reinforces the need for teachers to draw on a wide range of available multilingual, multimodal, and technological repertoire to create a learning environment conductive to interaction and academic and language learning in English-Medium-Instruction classroom.

Teachers’ Classroom Interactional Competence: Scale Development and Validation

Interactional competence has recently gained considerable attention in language education. As an aspect of this competence, classroom interactional competence has been in the limelight since Walsh’s (2006) delineation of this concept. However, there is no survey tool to measure teachers’ classroom interactional competence. To bridge this gap, the present study describes the development and validation of a teachers’ classroom interactional competence (TCIC) scale. An outline of the relevant literature related to classroom interactional competence is provided, along with the process of scale development and validation. An exploratory factor analysis of the data from a large sample of language teachers (N = 564) resulted in a 46-item scale that constituted nine factors, namely visual organizers, sociocultural interaction, questioning, interactional patterns, repair, language modification, turn taking, managerial interaction, and rhetorical script. The implications of the scale for the measurement and, in turn, the enhancement of teachers’ classroom interactional competence are discussed.

Shaping student responses into academic expressions: analysing an English medium instruction history classroom from a translanguaging perspective

ABSTRACT Prior research on classroom interaction has investigated how the teacher’s feedback turn following students’ responses can be used to transform students’ turns into academic expressions during whole class discussions. Nevertheless, more empirical studies are needed to explore how teachers’ translanguaging practices can play a role in shaping students’ contributions into pedagogical opportunities for introducing academic terminologies in English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classrooms. Adopting translanguaging as an analytical perspective, this study explores how an EMI history teacher deploys available linguistic and multimodal resources to connect students’ responses with academic concepts and terminologies. The study draws its data from a larger linguistic ethnographic project that took place in an EMI secondary history classroom in Hong Kong. The classroom interaction data is examined using Multimodal Conversation Analysis, and this analysis is further triangulated with video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This paper argues that the EMI teacher’s translanguaging practices facilitate the process of transforming student contributions into academic terminology and concepts. The process of deploying translanguaging for transforming student contributions highlights translanguaging as an important component of the teacher’s classroom interactional competence for constructing new configurations of language practices and achieving specific pedagogical purposes.

“Whenever I watched myself, I realised something different to improve”: Teacher candidates’ reflections on the video-based, micro-analytic practicum

The purpose of the study is to explore a group of EFL teacher candidates’ opinions on the reflective, video-based, and micro-analytic practicum with a focus on classroom interaction. A practicum course was designed to improve pre-service teachers’ classroom interactional competence and help pre-service teachers develop teacher reflection. For this reason, pre-service teachers’ lessons were video-taped and they were required to analyse their lessons with a focus on classroom interaction. First, they learnt classroom interactional competence framework and learnt how to analyse their lessons with a micro-analytic perspective. And then, they engaged in a reflective cycle in which they watched their videos, chose a significant segment and reflected on this segment. In addition, they exchanged feedback with each other in this cycle. At the end of the term, they were required to reflect on the whole process. This study explored the pre-service teachers’ reflections on this reflective cycle and specific components of the practicum. In addition, the researcher’s field notes were part of the data set. The content analysis of the reports indicated that pre-service teachers benefitted from this practicum course. In the light of their views, suggestions and implications for the practicum will be presented.

Technology-enhanced Reflection and Teacher Development: A Student Teacher's Journey

This article reports on the findings from a technology-enhanced teacher learning project where the SETTVEO app (Self Evaluation of Teacher Talk through Video Enhanced Observation) was used to support teachers’ reflective practices and professional development. Participants in the project were a group of 40 student teachers (ST) from Hong Kong, who took part in a teaching practicum taught online owing to COVID-19 restrictions. They formed online professional learning communities (PLCs) with peers and tutors, shared their class recordings (tagged using the on SETTVEO app), and reflected on their teaching through weekly discussions. This study aims to characterize teacher learning mediated by video technology and dialogue, and to evaluate the impact of the app on STs’ reflective practices and emerging Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC, Walsh 2013). In this article, we focus on an individual ST's development over a period of eight weeks. Two sources of data are transcribed and analysed using an applied Conversation Analysis (CA) method: the first records the teacher's interactions while teaching, the second their dialogic reflections based on observations of these class recordings. Findings from the study enhance our understandings of the role of technology in influencing classroom practice and highlight its importance in promoting teacher noticing and professional development.

The facilitative use of learner-initiated translanguaging in Japanese EFL contexts

Abstract This study explores the facilitative use of learner-initiated translanguaging and teacher responsiveness to its use in 68 dyads of conversational interaction between a teacher and individual students in tertiary Japanese EFL contexts. Adopting conversation analysis as an analytical framework, it aims to extend our understanding of the use of learner-initiated translanguaging and teacher responsiveness to translanguaging as an important interactional resource for learners to achieve interactional goals. The study identifies eight facilitative uses of L1. On the one hand, these uses contribute to the progressivity of talk as self-addressed translanguaging. On the other, they support intersubjectivity as co-constructed translanguaging in L2 interaction. These uses include (1) connectives for topic management; (2) floor-holding devices; (3) explicit word searches; (4) lexical gap fillers; (5) understanding displays; (6) clarification requests; (7) confirmation checks; and (8) explicit request for assistance. The study also reveals that learners’ self-initiated repair using L1 was frequently observed and that its use was intertwined with translanguaging in its functionality in discourse for meaning-making as a discursive practice. This study suggests that the use of translanguaging in the L2 classroom can be an indispensable tool to optimise learners’ classroom interactional competence.

Teacher’s personality and cultural identity impacting students’ motivation. Effective dialogue/discourse in the classroom

Hewstone and colleagues (2005, p. 294) define personality as a set of individual differences which are affected by the development of an individual: values, attitudes, personal memories, social relationships, habits, and skills. Those values and skills can in turn have a tremendous impact on students’ motivation and generally, the whole process of second language learning. Out of many theories of personality available, the article focuses on presumably the most recognised, i.e. Eysenck’s theory based on the distinction of two dimensions: extraversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability, psychoticism/normality which are called superfactors (Eysenck, 1994). The taxonomy differentiates between four personality types: an extrovert and introvert in two variants: stable and unstable and can also be analysed in terms of the correlation between traits, personality types and superfactors. The article discusses the concept of a teacher’s personality and cultural identity and its potential impact on students’ motivation, which, in turn, may trigger the development of dialogue and classroom interactional competence (CIC). It also provides some evidence showcasing certain divergence between students’ perceptions and opinions on the most motivating traits of a teacher’s personality and the factual character features that may boost their CIC.

Türkiyede İngilizce Öğretiminde Sınıf İçi Etkileşime Dair Sistematik İnceleme

While there are studies of international scope on L2 classroom interaction, there is no review as of today within the Turkish context. The envisioned change in the national educational policy until 2023 with a special focus on foreign language education involves contextual specification and localization of language teaching, and thus creates a special need to take a closer look at what is happening inside the classroom on a country basis. For this reason, the present study looks at English language classroom interaction research in the Turkish context to find out the recent trends and developments in the area in terms of methodological choices and contexts of investigation. To do so, document review is adapted as a data collection technique. Search terms were selected as ‘classroom interaction’, ‘classroom interaction in Turkey’, ‘L2 classroom interaction’, ‘L2 classroom interaction in Turkey’, and ‘classroom interactional competence’. Studies were found using three databases and an index. After carefully applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 studies were chosen for the review and analyzed in terms of methodologies, research contexts, and findings. Results showed that in terms of methodology, studies were inclined to employ Conversation Analysis and they were conducted predominantly in a university setting with adolescent participants along with various subject areas. In line with these findings, the present review tries to shed light on the past and present state of English language classroom interaction research in Turkey and attempts to propose future directions as well.

Pre-Service teachers’ management of student-initiated word searches in an EFL classroom

ABSTRACT Searching for unknown words is a common interactional practice of learners in EFL classrooms. Language teachers exploit learner-initiated word searches in several ways to promote learning opportunities. However, it can be more challenging for pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum, as it is their first contact with students in a real classroom. Therefore, it is worth analysing how pre-service teachers manage word searches in classroom interaction during their practicum. For this reason, we video-recorded 43 lessons of 16 pre-service EFL teachers doing their practicum at a high school in Turkey. We analysed student-initiated word searches and the orientations of the pre-service teachers to them. The results indicate that word searches are collaborative practices shaped by momentary the pedagogical focus, and the use of L1. Teachers attend to the word search by choosing the appropriate candidate word or providing reformulation for the negotiated words. When they do not attend to the word search, they may let it pass or prioritize fluency. Those two pathways will be discussed in relation to learning opportunities and teachers’ classroom interactional competence, and implications regarding EFL classrooms will be presented.

Challenges of Providing Learners with Scaffolding during Synchronous Online EFL Teaching

This study employed Walsh’s (2006) concept of classroom interactional competence to investigate the classroom interaction happening during synchronous online English language teaching. The data of this study is comprised of 8 40-minute video recordings of an EFL class at a state university’s English preparatory program. The data belongs to the same group of learners who were taught by the same EFL instructor. The classes were held during spring semester of 2019-2020 Academic Year via ZOOM, a free videoconferencing program. The analysis focused on scaffolding moves of the teacher- specifically reformulation, extension and modelling moves- for two reasons. First, the data was abundant in terms of teacher talk samples falling into this category. Second, several scaffolding attempts of the teacher were observed to fail due to technology-related problems. There was evidence in the data that the lack of body-language harmed the dialogic nature of teacher-learner interaction and reformulation and extension moves could not bring about extended learner turns. Regarding the unsuccessful modelling, it was observed that the teacher’s failure to use annotation tools hindered the learners’ noticing of teacher-modelling. As a result, these findings have implications for foreign language teachers’ adaptation to online teaching and also for the optimization of videoconferencing tools to be developed for educational use.

Classroom Interactional Competence of Young Learners with Story-Based Lessons in an EFL Context

Making use of the methodological framework of conversation analysis, the present study aims to investigate story-based classroom discourse with young learners of English in an EFL context. The data were collected from a private IB school following the Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum. The participants were 24 young learners who were under the age of 6 and two teachers. To present the interactional organisation of the classroom interaction, 16 hours of story-based lessons in two kindergarten classrooms were audio-recorded and transcribed in detail. The data was analysed from a discourse-analytic perspective. Although the study had hypothesised that learner initiatives would be more frequent in the post-story stages, the findings showed that the pre-story stages created more engaging learning environments. Based on the findings, the implications were provided for EFL classrooms as well as suggestions for further research.

Going beyond the Text: Interactional Competence in Reading Comprehension Class

Drawing on the principles underlying conversation analysis (CA), this paper is a single case analysis of interaction in an English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension classroom in Saudi Arabia. It looks at learning from a sociocultural perspective and uses constructs from this theoretical perspective. It focuses on Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC) (Walsh, 2013), showing classroom interaction features that are considered CIC. The paper reflects how an understanding of the concept can lead to more dialogic, engaged learning environments. The paper also connects CIC to teachers’ ability to manipulate simple classroom interactional resources to make the teaching process more effective. The paper demonstrates how teachers can induce CIC by utilizing interactional techniques, such as relaxing the mechanism and speed through which turns are taken or given, use of active listenership devices, extending wait time, and use of open-ended questions to expand topics under development. The paper argues that those techniques will help teachers, as evidenced from the cited examples, further enhance classroom participation so that it is convergent with their pedagogical goals. Finally, the paper has pedagogical implementations as it sheds light on techniques that help promote classroom interaction as an indication of learning among students with limited linguistic resources.

Translation in EFL teacher talk in Chinese universities: a translanguaging perspective

ABSTRACT This study considers translation as a joint enterprise in the management of both linguistic translation and associated meaning-making resources in English language teacher talk from a translanguaging perspective. Analysis of classroom teaching in Chinese universities using conversation analysis (CA) under the SETT (self-evaluation of teacher talk) framework reveals that the sequential patterns of translation go beyond the linguistic structure and are assimilated into a translanguaging pedagogical frame in alignment with dynamic L2 classroom modes. The findings contribute to an understanding of translanguaging effect within certain L2 classroom contexts. As such, the research further informs the appropriate use of translation/translanguaging practice to develop classroom interactional competence.

Synchronous online teaching, a blessing or a curse? Insights from EFL primary students’ interaction during online English lessons

Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing trend of incorporating synchronous online teaching tools into language teaching, yet the interaction patterns that unfold in online environment and its effectiveness on young learners remain underexplored. The present study narrows this research gap through closely examining the multi-modal exchanges between a veteran primary teacher and his EFL Grade 6 students during synchronous online English lessons, using a video-conferencing tool called ZOOM. 80 recordings from whole-class and small-group sessions over a four-month span were obtained and the various modes of synchronous computer-mediated communication that the teacher employed as well as spoken discourses were analyzed. The findings indicated that the teacher successfully utilized the affordances provided by ZOOM to elicit a large number of non-verbal responses and expanded verbal responses from students. The better-able students also demonstrated remarkable interactional skills during small-group sessions, as seen from their increased use of prompting and repair speech acts. Students’ reticence emerged as an alarming concern, though it was alleviated by extending the wait-time. Overall, this study offers a prototype for primary teachers to base upon during synchronous online lessons, whilst also highlights the need for re-conceptualizing the constituents of classroom interactional competence (CIC).

Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in EFL Classroom: The Case of Saudi Setting

This study investigates the maximum output of minimizing teacher talk and activating classroom interactivity in teaching English as a foreign language in light of 21st-century skills. It focuses on the self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT model) and classroom interactional competence (CIC) that guides the teachers to use interaction as a tool to give their learners enough learning opportunities. Teacher talking time is analyzed from a dualistic perspective, quantity and quality. The classroom interaction's analysis is based on the micro contexts and the pedagogic aspects. This research is conducted with a qualitative approach and content analysis method. The data source is the recording of ten English classes at the college of sciences and arts in Dhahran Aljanoub, King Khalid University (KKU). The study's findings have revealed that instructors dominate talking in English class and pose questions to students to minimise teacher talking time, and the most interactional features are based on displaying questions and teachers' domination of English classroom discourse.

Transforming student contributions into subject-specific expression

Drawing on a corpus of pre-service teacher training classroom interactions in an English-medium instruction university in Turkey, we examine teacher follow-up turns that introduce specialized terms, showing how a teacher transforms student’s responses into pedagogically relevant points using academic language. We argue that teacher third turn following student contributions accomplish several interrelated actions, not only introducing new terminology to these teachers-in-training, but also familiarizing them with ways of thinking specific to their discipline, i.e., these turns model “doing being a teacher.” These teacher actions are used to bridge student contributions to more scientific talk, that is, the teacher confirms contributions as subject-relevant by steering the direction of the upcoming talk, while also introducing students to potentially unfamiliar terminology, speaking as a member of an unnamed group of subject-matter experts. Notably, we argue that these content-based follow-ups are realized multimodally, drawing on prosodic, gestural, and proxemic resources, among others, and that these multimodal actions are an important aspect of teacher’s classroom interactional competence, showing how instructors socialize pre-service teachers into thinking and talking like professionals, i.e., like teachers.

E-Classroom Interactional Competencies: Mediating and Assisting Language Learning During Synchronous Online Lessons

Interaction is seen by many English language teachers and scholars as an essential part of face-to-face English language classrooms. Teachers require specific competencies to effectively use interaction as a tool for mediating and assisting learning. These can be referred to as classroom interactional competence (CIC). However, the situation created by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020, and the recent advancement in technologies have led to teachers conducting synchronous online lessons through video-conferencing software. The online environment is distinctly different from the face-to-face classroom and teachers require new and additional skills to effectively utilise interaction online in real time. This exploratory study used an online mixed-method survey of 75 university level English language teachers who had engaged in synchronous online teaching due to COVID-19, to explore the competencies that teachers need to use interaction as a tool to mediate and assist language learning in synchronous online lessons. Teachers were found to require three competencies, in addition to their CIC – technological competencies, online environment management competencies, and online teacher interactional competencies – which together constitute e-CIC. The findings provide greater insights into the needs of teachers required to teach synchronously online and will be of interest to teachers and teacher educators.