A Study On Group Interaction Patterns In English Major’s Flipped Classroom Under The Sociocultural Theory

The sociocultural theory holds that learning is fundamentally a social activity and needs to be carried out in a good social environment.As an important learning place for English majors,the class should create a good social environment.With the development of information technology,flipped classroom has become a research focus in teaching reform,because flipped classroom changes the teachers role and students role in the traditional teaching,sets up diverse group interaction activities in the classroom,provides learners with better conditions for learning and helps to improve students’ enthusiasm for participating in the classroom.Therefore,based on the sociocultural theory,it is of great significance to research the group interaction patterns of English majors in the flipped classroom teaching model.This research used quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect data through audio and video recording and semi-structured interviews.The researcher collated and quantified the interactive data from the two dimensions of equality and reciprocity,and explored the individual interactive performance of 30 English major freshmen in the groups and their stability in the flipped classroom model.Also the group interaction patterns and their stability were analyzed.Semi-structured interviews with 12 students were conducted at the end of the semester and the influencing factors of the group interaction patterns were analyzed.The results show that: first,in the flipped classroom model,the equality and reciprocity performance of individual English majors are different.Some students remain relatively stable,and some show great volatility.Second,in the flipped classroom model,there are four group interaction patterns,namely,collaborative,expert/novice,dominant/passive,and alternate.However,the interaction patterns of each group are not completely fixed.Third,in the flipped classroom model,the influencing factors of group interaction patterns are mainly the activity factors(the types of activities,the difficulty of activities)and the individual factors(students’ personality,students’ oral proficiency,the familiarity among the group members,students’ familiarity with the texts).This research provides a reference for improvingthe quality of group interaction of English majors in the flipped classroom model better.