An Application Of Classroom Interaction In The Teaching Of Reading For English Majors

In recent years foreign language learning in the classroom has been studied from many perspectives. The study of classroom interaction throws some new light on it.The teaching method of classroom interaction arose in 1970's, and ever since then western researchers have conducted a great deal of studies on it and have gained great success. Now in western countries it is very popular in the classroom to use this method in foreign language teaching and also in the teaching of other subjects. The researchers in our country have just begun to attach importance to it recently. The theories of the method have not been fully reviewed yet. And the experimental study is neither comprehensive nor systematic.The importance of reading course and the position it assumes in the curriculum are beyond doubt. Researches on reading have been conducted by many researchers both at home and abroad. However, the previous researches were mostly concerned with reading models and reading strategies. Teachers and researchers at home have realized the importance of interaction in learning and began to explore the possibility of applying it into the teaching. Up to now, most of the experiments have been made in the oral class. There have been few articles elaborating how to use interaction in reading class to help students become an effective reader, which remains to be a question.This thesis examines classroom interaction per se. and attempts to make its nature come to light at the same time. The author stresses the importance of classroom interaction based on the belief that the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom should provide learners with maximum exposure to the target language to enhance their learning and develop their communicative competence. In this research efforts have been made to recommend practical ways that can improve reading ability and conduce effective learning. Suggestions on language input, the basic types of classroom interaction between the teacher and students, and the types of classroom activities in reading class are also offered.This thesis attempted, through an experiment, to study the characteristics of classroom interaction in teaching reading for the second-year English majors in the university, and to explore the answers for the following questions:(1) What are the differences in attitude towards classroom interaction and classroom interaction activities between the interaction class and the non-interaction class?(2) What are the differences in reading proficiency between the interaction class and the non-interaction class?(3) What's the relationship between attitude towards classroom interaction- classroom interaction activities and reading proficiency?The one-term experiment totaling 96 hours was conducted by English majors from two classes, one being an experimental class, and the other a control one. Based on the premises of the Interaction Hypothesis (Long 1981) and the assumptions of the interactive model (Rumelhart 1985; Goodman 1981), the research constructed a concrete long-term classroom interaction model to be utilized in the actual reading course. The interactive reading teaching method was practiced in the experimental class while the traditional teacher-centered method was used in the control class. Two final-term examinations were used directly as the pretest (Band 2) and the posttest (Band 3) respectively in the research. The scores of the reading part from the two examinations were used as a measurement of students'reading proficiency of the training program. The same questionnaire was used before and after the training course to probe the changes in students'attitude and behavior of the two classes before and after the training. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 11.5 was applied to the analysis of the scores and questionnaires.The results of the analysis show that classroom interaction facilitates the change of students'attitude towards classroom interaction, enhances students'awareness of participation and students'frequency of classroom interaction, promotes the process of teaching and learning, and improves students'learning autonomy and communicative competence. The results also exhibit students'participation in interaction has a statistically positive correlation with reading proficiency after the training, but the correlation coefficient is rather low. And the results also indicate that there is no correlation between students'attitude towards classroom interaction and reading proficiency. It reveals that classroom interaction is crucial in language learning but it is not a determinative factor. There are other factors that influence language learning and reading proficiency in the classroom. So, what are the other factors that influence language teaching and learning in an interactive class remains to be studied in the future research.Language teaching is both theoretical and practical work. The purpose of this thesis is to prove the feasibility and efficacy of applying the interaction into the teaching reading in the classroom by putting the theory into practice. And it is the writer's sincere hope that more language teachers will make further studies on this practical teaching approach in order to improve students'English proficiency and competence.