A Study On English Classroom Teacher-student Interaction In Senior High Schools

Teacher-student interaction in English class is a dynamic process where teachers and students communicate and influence each other in order to achieve the same teaching goals. The implementation of effective interaction is not only the fundamental basis of good teacher-student relationship and the premise to improve the quality of teaching and learning, but also an effective way to strengthen students’ ability and improve students’ all-round development.Based on the definition of interaction from Brown, HD(1994), “two or more people exchange thoughts and feelings to transmit information and cause the process of impact to others”, and the interactive principles he put forward in 2012 “automaticity, intrinsic motivation, strategic investment, willingness to communicate, the language-cultural connection, interlingua and communicative competence”, this thesis attempts to have an in-depth understanding about present situation of teacher-student interaction, explore problems and overcoming strategies in present interaction.The combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods was used in this study. By random sampling, 160 students and their respective English teachers(Teacher A, Teacher B and Teacher C) of an ordinary high school in Kunming, Yunnan Province were chosen as the participants of the study. Three kinds of research instruments were employed in the study: questionnaire, classroom observation and semi-structured interview. Based on the data provided by the three kinds of research instruments, the current situation of teacher-student interaction was presented clearly. After the analyzing the data collected, some problems existing in the interaction were also exposed: formulation of interactive patterns; utilitarianism of interactive goals; deficiency of various interactive patterns, monotony of teaching role, lack of questioning strategies and inefficiency of teachers’ feedback.Aiming to solve the problems in teacher-student interaction, nine strategies were put forward:(1) provide students different kinds of interactive materials;(2) give students time to discuss and share with others;(3) design various interaction activities;(4) design some different level activities;(5) encourage the dominant position of students;(6) give students more open questions to arouse their thinking;(7) give timely and various feedbacks;(8) strengthen teachers’ professional development;(9) respect students.