Artifact Blogpost #1 - The Power of “Interaction” as a Learning and Teaching Principle

The Power of “Interaction” as a Learning and Teaching Principle

What is the principle of interaction? “Interaction is the basis of L2 learning, through which learners are engaged both in enhancing their own communicative abilities and in socially constructing their identities through collaboration and negotiation.” (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 80) 

All learning involves a search for principles of meaning where people try to contextualize their experiences against what has been - or is known. In second language learning, this search for meaning is undertaken by both students and teachers. In Brown and Lee’s (2015) book, eight learning and teaching principles have been identified with one of the most personally relevant being “interaction”. This one principle epitomized a recent English Second Language (ESL) experience I encountered while facilitating a recent ESL conversation class and the significance of this principle was undeniable.

            We began class with a random placement of beginner to intermediate students about the room at select tables. Each table had a facilitator who would help guide the assembled group’s discussion. At my table, there were six students (two from southern Japan, three from different regions of China, and one from South America). 

As the students assembled at my table, I leveraged the opportunity to make a welcoming introduction and complete a quick assessment of what skill level I may be working with. This was my own form of interactive “scaffolding” as I expected our conversations would start with these simple introductions and then build as our group expanded and our time together went on. 

One of the Chinese students was a male. His English skills were less developed than all others in the group and based on his body language and tone, I sensed he was especially anxious and self-conscious about the grouping. He seemed nervous about me (we had never met before) and his performance in front of the two-other female Chinese students. I immediately set out to ease his burden by commenting how impressed I was at his resolve to learn English and how I would be overwhelmed if in China learning there. With each offered sentence, I listened, smiled, and commented on the clarity of his pronunciation. These affirmations continued as I segued the conversation around the table to include each student. He increasingly became comfortable and began to volunteer answers – even in making minor errors, he continued his risk-taking behavior and even began to introduce humour himself. It was incredible to see this growth in the moment. The power of interaction was becoming apparent to myself as facilitator.

As my questions increased in challenge, I spoke about my own difficulties learning English – even as a native speaker. I drew attention to how each of us was growing together to make each other better but emphasized how despite the little errors and struggles each of us faced with English – there we were, all from different parts of the world, speaking in another language and understanding each other! I called attention to the male Chinese student and details in a subject he brought up. I commented at how challenging that topic was but that everyone at the table knew exactly what he was communicating and how in the moment, he could respond to questions from other group members. The power of interaction was becoming apparent to the student.

     From that point on the remainder of class was a frenzy of ideas, laughter, and energy. The Spanish speaking student from South America commented to the Chinese male “who are you my friend? I have never seen you talk like this in all our classes?” The whole of the group was relaxed and fully engaged when the overall coordinator had to interrupt our session to conclude the day. As each student gathered their belongings to leave, the energy and excitement of this shared experience was palatable and motivating for all of us. Simple affirmations, scaffolding techniques, encouragement of risk-taking questions / assertions had all been powerful interactive tools to promote ESL growth. This facilitator can’t wait for the next class!

REFERENCES

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy

      (4th ed. revised). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Education.

Hall, G. (2011). Exploring English language teaching: Language in action. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & 

      Francis.

Thaine, C. (2010). Second Language Acquisition (SLA). In Teacher training essentials. Workshops 

     for professional development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.