An Interactive Approach To Teaching College English

Interaction is a very important issue in the study of EFL teaching. Interaction isthe collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings or ideas between two or more peopleresulting in a reciprocal effect on each other. The Interactive Approach is in fact anintegrated approach to language teaching. It is not just a set of static principles, but adynamic composite of energies within the learners and the teachers that changes withtheir experiences in their own learning and teaching. The Interactive Approach freesthe teacher as well as the student. The teacher's role is to act as a coach who organizes,encourages, and guides students' interaction. Many foreign researchers have conductedremarkable theoretical research about the importance of implementing interaction inlanguage classroom and its pedagogic significance as well. But in China there is notany research satisfied at present. This dissertation aims at finding the strategies thatcan foster classroom interaction, based on theories of the Interaction Hypothesis, theInput Hypothesis and the Output Hypothesis, and Vygotsky's theory of interaction. Inthe current College English classroom, the situation of classroom interaction isalarming. This phenomenon was shown in the questionnaire designed to investigate thecurrent classroom interaction in College English classroom. The results show that:1). There does not have enough interaction in current College English class.2). The large number of the students and the fixed chairs make it difficult forteachers to implement interaction.3). Most of the students feel dissatisfied with the current teacher-dominatemethod. 4). Most of the students agree that questioning is the dominating interactionstrategy in current College English class.5). Most of the students agree that group work can improve their learning inclassroom.Three main strategies have been concluded that can improve the interaction inclassroom, 1). creating an environment conductive to the learner, 2). improvingquestioning, 3). employing group work.This dissertation consists of seven parts. The Introduction discusses the currentsituation in the teaching of College English in China and points out its problems. Itthen introduces the structure of the dissertation. In Chapter one, the author discussesthe theoretical bases of interaction from the perspectives of the Interaction Hypothesis,the Input Hypothesis and the Output Hypothesis, and Vygotsky's theory of interaction.Chapter two explores features and advantages of the Interactive Approach to languageteaching. Chapter three gives an overview of the current classroom interaction inCollege English class through a questionnaire aiming to find out the problems existingin classroom interaction which is followed by a discussion based on the results of thequestionnaire. Chapter four proposes strategies for implementing interaction in CollegeEnglish class. In Chapter five, a demonstration lesson of an interactive listening classis designed. The last part is the Conclusion.