The different uses of the pronoun ‘we’ by EFL teachers in classroom interaction

The pronoun ‘we’ is understood only to refer to the first-person plural. In fact, the pronoun ‘we’ can also refer to other references. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the different uses of the pronoun ‘we’ by EFL teachers in classroom interaction. This study employed a qualitative approach by using three instruments: observation, audio-recorder, and interview in collecting the data. The subjects of this research are two English teachers and the second-grade students at a vocational high school in Makassar. The data were analyzed by formulating Miles et al.’s method of analysis. The result of this study shows that, in classroom interaction, the pronoun ‘we’ can refer to six distinct references: (1) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and more than one addressee, (2) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and more than one-third party, (3) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and indefinite group, (4) ‘we’ that indicates ‘you’, (5) ‘we’ that indicates ‘I’, and (6) ‘we’ that indicates “they”. From the interviews, the researchers found that both teachers have different reasons for using the pronoun ‘we’ in classroom interaction. The first teacher intends to use the pronoun to help him create an enjoyable learning environment and establish better relationships with the students. In contrast, the other teacher uses the pronoun ‘we’ to show politeness to the students. Despite the differences, they both seem to have the same intention of creating a positive learning environment.

Gamification in Everyday Classrooms: Observations From Schools in Hong Kong

Gamification refers to the use of game elements in non-game context to improve user experience and engagement (Deterding et al., 2011a). The potential of games to make learning more engaging has been widely noted by educators and researchers. Many of the applications and research studies in this area focused on non-customizable digital games that are designed for a specific group and a narrow range of subject content. In actual classrooms, however, non-customizable digital games may not be flexible enough to enable teachers to adapt gamification into practice. Hence, teachers sometimes use a mixed set of strategies to flexibly embed game-based mechanics into their teaching. How can different gamification tools be applied in classrooms? Based on classroom observations and teacher interviews from schools from primary to secondary level in Hong Kong, this paper explores the role of gamification in real practice. We frame the discussion based on the following approaches with ranging levels of flexibility: versatile gamification, gamification platform, and rigid gamification. Versatile gamification was seen as more feasible compared with the other two approaches. We also examine how game-based mechanics such as competition, rules, graphics, and achievements are used to enrich classroom interaction. It was found that gamification is already popular in the classroom. Follow up interviews with teachers suggested that game is a powerful way to engage students. Good practices in game-based lesson design and potentials for further development of gamification tools are discussed.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES IN ACTIVATING STUDENTS’ ORAL COMMUNICATION

The paper is aimed at describing the procedures of three active learning strategies which can be used to design a learning situation for learners to speak English actively. The three active learning strategies are live interview, short conversation, and long talk. Specifically, the implementation of each strategy can give impact to the learners’ speaking performance in terms of accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. Each strategy promotes the learners’ self-confidence and thinking skills. The implementation of each strategy considers four aspects, namely: the roles of teacher, the classroom interaction, the material, and the learning process. Each strategy evokes variation in those aspects.

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.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES IN ACTIVATING STUDENTS’ ORAL COMMUNICATION

The paper is aimed at describing the procedures of three active learning strategies which can be used to design a learning situation for learners to speak English actively. The three active learning strategies are live interview, short conversation, and long talk. Specifically, the implementation of each strategy can give impact to the learners’ speaking performance in terms of accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. Each strategy promotes the learners’ self-confidence and thinking skills. The implementation of each strategy considers four aspects, namely: the roles of teacher, the classroom interaction, the material, and the learning process. Each strategy evokes variation in those aspects.

Analysis Minimal Exchange Structures and General Exchange Structure in English Classroom Interaction Found in Youtube

This research reported study about analysis minimal exchange structures and general exchange structure in English classroom interaction found in you tube, (from mujikuy channel : asking and giving information about berbasis ganre in x class). This study direct to analysis the element of minimal exchange structures and general exchanges structures in English classroom interaction find in you tube. The data is the clauses obtained from conversation among teacher and students of X grade during English classroom learning process that find in you tube from (Mujikuy channel : asking and giving information about berbasis ganre in x class). This study uses theory of Halliday (1994) by qualitative descriptive method. The result shows that there are three (3) types of act as the element of exchange structures: Initiating, Responding,and Following-Up (I-R-F). Minimal exchange structure consists of: Initiating-Responding (I-R) or Initiating-Responding-Following Up (I-R-F). General structure of exchange in classroom situation consists of: greeting, giving order, giving information, asking question, and closing. In the learning process, things do not always go well. When the learning process students sometimes do not respond to conversations or instructions given by the teacher. Therefore teachers must take initiatives such as providing information, asking questions, and giving instructions. So that the learning process becomes more efficient. This study shows that the teacher has the authority to regulate learning activities

The Implementation of Self Evaluation Teacher Talk (SETT) in Teaching English: A Case Study

This study analyzed the implementation of SETT (Self Evaluation Teacher Talk) (Walsh, 2011) by an English teacher in a senior high school in Surabaya. A descriptive analysis was conducted towards the talk used by teacher in delivering the material. As the law, the teacher regulated the students to speak the target language anyhow. On the other hand, the teacher applied a classroom interaction in English. There are four modes available based on the SETT criteria; managerial mode, material mode, skill and system mode, classroom context mode. The result shown that the teacher mostly applied two mode, namely managerial mode and skill and system mode, and was followed by classroom context mode, then material mode.

The Power of Politeness Strategies in EFL Student-Teacher Interaction: Teacher’s Gender Perspective

The nature of student-teacher interaction is often influenced by the teachers’ actions and utterances. In fact, student-teacher interaction could be felt like either threatening or enjoyable. Teachers’ politeness will result in enjoyable student-teacher interaction. Very few studies about politeness on the teachers’ gender perspectives have been conducted. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the kinds of politeness strategies used by male and female teachers in powering EFL classroom, and to elaborate how the power of politeness strategies run the EFL student-teacher interaction. The participants are several teachers and students who conduct the English Intensive Course Program in an undergraduate university. Many students-teacher interactions using English are found in those course program, since the courses require the classroom participants to communicate in English. This research followed qualitative research design and used observation to collect data. Applying Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness, the results show that politeness strategies bring a lively and friendly atmosphere during the classroom interaction. Specifically for female teachers who mostly use positive politeness strategy, they build more interaction with the student rather male teachers. Positive politeness strategy focused on the students’ positive face by expressing the number of utterances that want to be listened to by the students. It keeps students to have willingness to communicate so that the student-teacher interaction in EFL classroom can be maximized.

The Use of Online Authentic Reading Materials In Online Reading Class

Education in Indonesia, as the large-scale power of the has to be compelled the continuity of teaching activities during the COVID-19 pandemic online learning. It inspires teachers to choose a suitable material to fulfill students’ needs and interests in teaching language. The appropriateness and well chosen authentic materials used by teachers in a context of reading have to cover meaningful content in which those are relevant. Thus, this study attempts to investigate those authenticity used as well as teachers’ challenges in implementing online authentic reading materials in online reading class of higher education. The study is a qualitative. The subjects are three EFL teachers of higher education that teach General English and English for Specific Purposes freshmen for two semesters. The data collection techniques are observation and interview. In analyzing the data, this study uses Ary et al. (2010) theory: familiarizing and organizing; coding and reduction; interpreting and representing. The findings revealed that authenticity is considered as the pivotal thing since, in this case, English is taught as foreign language. The authentic materials can be said its prevalence by measuring each authenticity based on three areas including SLA (Second Language Acquisition), language pedagogy and ICT (Information and Communication Technology). It could establish the applied authenticity to the language learning design materials, especially learning English language. Moreover, The challenge was about the materials, students’ interests, classroom activities and classroom interaction occurred among teachers and the students.