Classroom Interaction

Using Cooperative Learning

ELC 688 Methods I

Survey of Best Practices in TESOL

By Teresa Hecht Valais

UMBC, E-Teacher

Scholarship Program

Unit 4: Objectives

In this unit you will:

• Consider the nature and importance of interaction in your

language learning classroom

• Consider a framework for exploring interaction in

practice incorporating cooperative learning

• Reflect on how interaction for English language teaching

and learning can be enhanced in your own context and

practice

2

The Importance of

Classroom Talk and

Interaction

Studies conducted on classroom interaction

show:

• Student talk, on an average, accounts for less than 30%

in a teacher-centered classroom

Studies on language and learning show that learners learn to talk

and talk to learn

By asking questions they explore and learn about the world

around them (refers to Dewey’s Inquiry Model)

(Tsui, 1995:81) 3

The Importance and Nature

of Interaction

• Create a culture of learning which fosters interest in

language and culture and encourages learners to accept

responsibility for their own learning

• Use a range of methodologies and techniques for

language learning in a principled way taking into

consideration the relevance and transferability for

learning through social interaction using a learner

centered approach.

4

Interaction in Practice

• Participants

• Teacher Responsibility

• Student Responsibility

5

Participants

Roles for Classroom Interactions

• Teacher whole class

• Teacher students

• Students students

6

Interaction in Practice

Teacher’s responsibilities to students:

• Provide authentic language situations and materials.

• Create a non-threatening environment.

• Make sure each student has the opportunity to interact

during class.

• “Push” students into producing output that is concise,

coherent and appropriate.

• Provide students with feedback on their output.

7

Interaction in Practice

Students responsibilities:

• Participate and cooperate with others in classroom activities;

interact in each class.

• Risk making mistakes. Try out experiment, and create with

the language.

• Learn to use language learning strategies that enable them

to continue learning English outside of the classroom.

• Ask for help and correction.

• Provide feedback to teacher about progress.

8

Benefits of Increasing Students’

Oral English Production in Class

• Familiarizes students with using English and helps them feel

comfortable interacting in English rather than afraid

• Motivates students to learn English so that they can

communicate more effectively

• Builds students’ confidence in using English as they are able

to get their ideas across

• Gives students the opportunity to “notice the gap” between

their comprehension of input and they ability to produce

comprehensible output

• Lets students test hypotheses about how English works and

get feedback from the teacher

9

Classroom Interaction

Techniques…

…can be used to give students a

chance to build English language

proficiency. Students can practice

using English in meaningful and

communicative context with the

teacher’s guidance and feedback.

10

Classroom Interaction is

Authentic Communication

Language Functions

• Transactional Message oriented

Giving instructions

Giving directions

Clarifying

• Interactional Person oriented

Verbal and nonverbal

Whole group, small

group, and pair work

(Brown and Yule, 1983a)

(Willis, 1981, p. 30)

Language, then, used in the classroom is very similar to

real life, basic, everyday English.

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Other Examples of Authentic

Communication in the

Classroom

• Negotiation and clarification of meaning

• Comprehension checks

• Clarification requests

• Paraphrasing

• Summarizing

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• Rationale

• Benefits of Cooperative Learning

• Elements of Cooperative Learning

• Class Activities that use Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning &

Interaction

13

Rationale

“Whereas comprehension of a message

can take place with little syntactic

analysis of the input, production forces

learners to pay attention to the means

of expression.” ~ Swain’s Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

(Swain, 1995) 14

Benefits of Cooperative

Learning

Cooperative efforts result in participants striving

for mutual benefit so that all group members:

• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and

my success benefits you.)

• recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We

all sink or swim together here.)

• know that performance is mutually caused by oneself and

team members. (We can not do it without you.)

• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is

recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your

accomplishment!)

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5 Elements of Cooperative

Learning

• Positive Interdependence

• Face-to-Face Interaction

• Individual and Group Accountability

• Interpersonal and Small-Group Skills

• Group Processing

(Kagan, 1994) 16

Elements of Cooperative

Learning

Positive Interdependence

(sink or swim together)

• Each group member's efforts are

required and indispensable for group

success

• Each group member has a unique

contribution to make to the joint effort

because of his or her resources and/or

role and task responsibilities

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Face-to-Face Interaction

• Orally explaining how to solve

problems

• Teaching one's knowledge to others

• Checking for understanding,

clarifying

• Discussing concepts being learned

• Connecting present with past

learning (schema)

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Individual & Group

Accountability

“Each group operates as a team and

the teammates are responsible for their

own learning as well as that of their

teammates. ...Everyone has a task and

is actively involved. ...students must

feel that they need each other in order

to carry out the group's task.”

No social loafing!

(Mickel, 1993, p. 659) 19

Interpersonal & Small-Group

Skills

• Group decision-making

• Trust-building

• Effective language

negotiation

• Problem solving skills

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• Group members discuss how well they are achieving their

goals and maintaining effective working relationships

• Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful

• Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or

change

Group Processing

21

Cooperative Learning

Activities (Access the lecture handouts for more information on each)

• KWL

• JIGSAW

• TPS

• Four Corners

• Debate

• Panel Discussions

22

Pair and Group Work Video: Where Cooperative Learning Works: Increasing

Classroom Interaction & Integrating Skills

REFLECT

• What was the ratio of teacher talk to student talk?

• Who asked questions?

• Who used classroom language?

• Did all students participate in the class?

• Did all students speak in complete sentences?

• Relate what you see here to what you observed in your

Peer Observation experience

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15djwsGc4Wg

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Goal: Cooperative Learning

Fosters Learner Autonomy

Five levels for encouraging learner autonomy

1. Awareness: learners are made aware of pedagogical goals, contents

and strategies

2. Involvement: learners are actively involved in the learning

3. Intervention: learners are encouraged to modify and adapt their goals,

learning styles and strategies

4. Creation: learners set up their own goals and plans for self-directed

learning

5. Transcendence: learners move beyond classroom setting for

independent learning, i.e. LEARNER AUTOMOMY

(Nunan, 1997) 24

• Ellis, R., Tanaka, Y. & Yamazaki, A. (1994). Classroom interaction, comprehension, and L2 vocabulary

acquisition. In Language Learning 44, 449-91.

• Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process.

Boston, New York & London: Heath.

• Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, California: Kagan Publishing

• Kagan, S. (1995). We can talk: Cooperative learning in the elementary ESL classroom. In ERIC Digest

Reproduction No. ED 382 035.

• Mickel, V.L. (1993). Using cooperative learning in teaching content reading. In Journal of Reading, 36, 659-660.

• Nunan, D. (1997). Designing and adapting materials to encourage learner autonomy. In Benson, P. & Voller, P.

(Eds.) Autonomy and independence in language learning, p. 192–203. London: Longman.

• Slavin, R. E. (1999). Comprehensive approaches to cooperative learning. In Theory into practice, 38(2), 74-79.

• Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In Cook, G. & Seidelhofer, B. (Eds.)

Principle and practice in applied linguistics: Studies in honor of H.G. Widdowson, p. 125-144. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

• Tsui, A.B.M. (1995). Introducing classroom interaction. London: Penguin Group.

• Willis, J. (1981). Teaching English through English. Harlow, England: Longman.

References

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