A Case Study on the English Classroom Interaction Teaching Mode in Primary School

【Abstract】：English has attracted increasing attention in elementary education. Interactive mode of English teaching can stimulate student’s initiative of learning English and improve student’s ability of the comprehensively use of English. This paper analyzes the English classroom interaction teaching mode in primary school with a sample lesson， hoping to promote the development of elementary English teaching.

【Key words】： English teaching， interaction teaching mode， primary school

1 Introduction：

With the deepening of China’s reform in education， English teaching in most of the provinces starts in primary school， which is thought highly of the English teaching in China. However， the traditional English teaching emphasis on delivering knowledge， making the class environment depressing and boring. Therefore， it is necessary to introduce the interactive approach and explore the interactive mode in primary school.

2 Literature review

Interaction refers to the discourse which completed by the learner and his/her interlocutor. （Ellis， 1999） Meanwhile， Brown （2001） claims that interaction is the considerable communication of thoughts， feelings or ideas between students and leading to the narrowing of their information gap， so English classroom should be interactive.

Zhang Ziping （2015） summarized that， Ashley divided the interactive mode between teacher and students into three ways which are teacher-center， learner-center and knowledge-center. Lippitt and White classified the ways of interaction between teacher and students into Teacher command， Negotiation between them， and non-interference.

Comparatively， there exists less research in China. Wei Haibo （2007） found that interactive teaching often includes substantial classroom activities， such as role play， simulation， group discussion， and seminar. At the same time，students play the key role in class， and group activity is important in an interactive class. （Yan， F. Min， Z. Yan， L. 2010）

3 Analysis of the case

According to the references showed above， the following analyzes the interaction mode in interlocutor， the types of activities， and feedback three aspects.

3.1 Interlocutor

At the beginning of the lesson， after greeting the teacher asks students the weather， date and the day. Next， at the stage of lead-in， the teacher shows students some pictures of animals and asks students several questions like： What is this？ Students answer together. In the process of teaching， for the sake of helping students to comprehend the reading text， the teacher keeps asking questions. For instance， the teacher asks： What did you do in the zoo？ What can you see？ etc. To answer those questions， students discuss them with partners and answer those questions personally.

In the situations mentioned above， the teacher initiates all the conversations. Accordingly， questions of general knowledge or the literal meaning of the text are answered by the whole class； questions which need thinking and inferencing are answered by several students personally， and when comes with meaningful questions， the teacher often asks students to discuss. Therefore， in accordance with interlocutor， the interaction in this classroom can be summarized into the following types： the interaction between teacher and whole class， the interaction between teacher and a student， and the interaction between student and student.

3.2 The types of activities

To start with， after listening to the music， the teacher divided the whole class into three groups， monkey， giraffe， and elephant to have a race this lesson. The students in which group perform well， they can win a “food”. By the end of this lesson， there will have a winner in this lesson. Besides， at ask and answer stage， the teacher encourages students thinking actively and personally. Meanwhile， the teacher gives students 30 seconds to discuss before answering each question.

For comprehending the text， the teacher asks students to listen and answer questions and say words and fill in blanks according to pictures. Not only that， when students comprehended the text， the teacher asks students to role-play in groups.

In brief， the teacher organizes whole class work， group work， individual work， listen and say， look and say， fill in the blanks， and role-play in this lesson.

3.3 Feedback

The feedback in this lesson is given in two ways： praise and error correction. When students answer the question correctly， the teacher says “good， grate”. However， when students make some errors， the teacher correct them directly. For example， when a boy says “I go to the zoo at the last weekend.” The teacher instantly says “I went…” Similarly， when students make some mistakes， the teacher asks the other students to correct. In this way， the students would notice the accuracy when they express themselves in English and improve their English ability.

4 Conclusion

Obviously， the lesson analyzed in part three is absolutely an interactive English teaching class， for students talk about 10 more percent than teacher， which accelerates the communicative competence of students. Meanwhile， teacher plays an important role in an interactive class and the teacher should fully prepared and take some teaching methods to promote the teaching. However， the conclusion comes based on the analysis of one case of interactive class， which needs deeper study is the limitation of this research.

References

Brown， D. H. （2001） Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Ellis， R. （1999） Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Shanghai： Shanghai English Education Press.

方艷， 趙敏， 李巖. （2010） 英語課堂互動教學模式探究. 《教學與管理》. pp. 116-117.

魏海波. （2007） 英語課堂師生的互動性. 安順學院學報. 9（4）. pp. 35-38.

張紫屏. （2015） 國外課堂師生互動研究：熱點問題與未來趨勢. （4）. pp. 41-48.