An Analytical Study Of The Student's Role In College English Classroom Interaction

According to social constructivism, knowledge is not passively accumulated, but rather, is the result of active cognition by the individual, of social interaction and language usage. It emphasizes the co-construction of meaning within a social activity, and acknowledges the learner's active role in the personal creation of knowledge.Researchers have turned their attention from the study of teaching methods to teaching process itself. And the study of classroom interaction has become a very heated issue home and broad. This is of great value to our English teaching. However, classroom interaction in China is very frustrating, and the student' s reluctance to get involved in interaction seems to be the biggest problem. In contrast, many researches are directed to the study of the teacher's role and teaching rather than the student's role and learning, and this does not match its practical value.Based on the social constructivist theory, the author tries to study and analyze what role the students play in classroom interaction and how it affects classroom interaction. It is found in this thesis that the students are playing a passive role instead of taking an active part in classroom interaction. This passive role of the students in turn affects classroom interaction in five aspects. Finally the author puts forward suggestions about how to make the students play their part better in classroom interaction.The thesis consists of five parts,and the main contents are as follows:Chapter one gives the definition of classroom interaction and its important place in second language acquisition. It then discusses the current state of teacher-student interaction in college English classrooms and sates the purpose of this study.The word interaction finds its origin in sociology. Social interactionists maintain that children are born in a social world and learning takes place in the process of interaction with others. According to Brown (1994:159), interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more peopleresulting in a reciprocal effect on each other. It can be concluded that interaction plays a crucial role in language learning and the success of a language classroom depends, to a large extent, on classroom interaction. EFL in China has been said to foster many "mute" or "deaf" English learners (Dai Weidong 2001).Though researchers home and abroad have come to realize the importance of classroom interaction, the present situation is far from satisfactory, with the biggest problem being the student' s reluctance to take part in classroom interaction. To help both the teachers and learners understand the learner's role better and make learning more effective is a very urgent and important task.Chapter two first introduces social constructivism and its contribution to the study of classroom interaction and the definition of learner-centered classroom. It then reviews the studies of classroom interaction.Social constructivism adopts the positive points from other theories like humanism, cognism,and social interactionism, emphasizing knowledge is actively constructed by the learners in interaction with others. Leamer-centered interactive classroom gives importance to the positive contributions the learners make in classroom interaction which is a way for them to manage their own studies(Allwright 1984). Studies of classroom interaction fall into two categories: interaction studies from the point of view of classroom research and interaction studies serving the end of SLA research. Classroom interaction studies in China are mostly based on western theories and most of them are about the study of teacher's role and how to teach, few are dealing with the problem of the students' role.Chapter three covers the "research question", "the subjects", "the mothodology", "data collection methods", and "data analysis methods".The thesis aims to analyze what role the students play in college English classroom interaction and its influence on classroom interaction. The datas come from three parts: a video recording of a live college English class, structured interviews of both the students and the teacher, and also questionnaires on the two sides.Chapter four analyzes the role the students play in classroom interaction and comes to a conclusion. That is, the students are not actively playing their part and thusare still passive listeners. This results in five negative effects on classroom interaction: teacher-centered classroom, unequal status, phony communication, low production of the target language on the part of the students, and ineffective classroom interaction.Chapter five is the conclusion in which five points are suggested to help the students play their part better: implementing group/pair work, enhancing the student's self-esteem, creating a positive classroom climate, teacher-training, and student-training. Because this is only a tentative research, the data and method are limited and subjective, and some problems remain unresolved for the author to exert more effort in the future.