A Study On Teacher Factors Affecting Classroom Interaction

In China, for students who learn English as a second language, the main source of language input is English classroom teaching. With the continuous development of communicative approach, interactive classroom has also become the classroom teaching model extremely advocated by our country. In recent years, the study of classroom interaction has gradually become a hot research topic at home and abroad, which involves all aspects of classroom interaction, such as theory, application, influential factors and significance and so on. However, empirical studies on teacher factors affecting English classroom interaction are rare. In order to promote the application of interactive classroom in China, improve English language teaching and enrich the studies of classroom interaction, this paper aims to study teacher factors affecting English classroom interaction in senior high school.The participants of this study are four teachers (three females and one male) with their304students in Grade Two in Hunan Longshan senior high school. The method adopted for this research is naturalistic inquiry, including classroom observation, questionnaire and interviews. Through classroom observation, the researcher analyzes and discusses the current situation of classroom interaction in Hunan Longshan senior high school from type of classroom interaction, interactive activities, frequency of classroom interaction, the length of interactive time, participation of the students and classroom atmosphere. Besides, information about students’ and teachers’ views of classroom interaction and teachers factors affecting classroom interaction is collected through questionnaire and interviews.The results of the collected data show that the students remain passive in senior English classroom interaction and they seldom participate in classroom interaction. The classroom instructions observed are still teacher-centered. It is found that on one hand, inside the classroom, classroom atmosphere, teaching methods and nonverbal behavior, the design and organization of interactive activities and teacher talk can directly influence the students’ active participation in classroom interaction. On the other hand, teacher immediacy, teacher-student relationship and age gap between teachers and students can also indirectly affect the effect of classroom interaction. It is hoped that this study can help the reader to know the reality of classroom interaction in senior high school, help teachers to realize some problems related to themselves in the interactive classroom teaching so as to promote the effectiveness of interactive classroom teaching in middle school and finally improve the overall quality of the Chinese English classroom teaching.