Some Characteristics of Interaction in Foreign Language Classrooms

Abstract

The authors intend to direct attention, through this report of a collaborative, school‐based study, towards the interactional processes which characterise secondary foreign language (FL) lessons. It is argued that, since these processes have an influential effect upon pupils’ learning and attitudes, this kind of research can yield important insights for an area of the curriculum which has many current problems and which is relatively unpopular with pupils. The methodology employed blends discourse analysis with ethnographic procedures and aims to identify patterns of teacher‐pupil interaction. Degrees of teacher‐dominance in FL lessons are related to constraints which derive from the subject‐matter and purposes of language teaching. Teacher‐strategies, and their implications for pupils’ viewpoints of the subject, are considered; and fruitful lines of further research are indicated.