The Teacher's Turn: Teachers’ Perceptions Of Observed Patterns Of Classroom Interaction

Abstract

Insight in the way verbal teacher-student classroom interaction unfolds during the language lesson is of crucial importance for effective teaching. Although classroom observational research is indispensable, it is unable to uncover underlying intentions or motivations for the observed behavior. Teacher cognition research seeks to address the relation between teaching practice and what teachers think. This study reports on the perceptions of a group of English as a foreign language teachers (n = 57) who were asked to reflect on results from a classroom observation study about EFL teacher-student interaction in a similar teaching context. A large majority (82%) of the respondents recognized the observed pattern of closed teacher questions and limited student responses. This majority indicated that student participation in their own lessons is similar to the observed lessons or lower. Respondents attributed the pattern of high teacher activity and low student activity to emotional factors rather than to students' proficiency levels, lesson content, lesson activities or motivational aspects. According to 51% of the respondents, making students feel more competent by focusing on formative evaluation might improve classroom interaction, whereas 18% of the respondents suggested that interaction could be improved by using different teaching materials.