What is intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom?
Intellectual interaction
is the formal relationship that is maintained between the teacher and the learners in a
classroom. It is the teacher’s involvement that influences either to have a positive interactive or negative interactive learning environment within the
classroom. When the teacher is able to
establish positive interaction among students, they get motivated to learn more
and it becomes effortless even to teach. Otherwise, if the teacher makes a negative interaction
with the students, the students pay less attention and become easily bored in
learning in an ESL classroom. Intellectual interaction among students can be improved
by conducting interactive activities. They are the key factors (interactive
activities) that make the ESL classroom effective and fruitful. Thus, these activities
make the student very active, responsible, and confident during the classroom
sessions. As well as they have different impacts and effects on the language proficiency
of the students. According to Brown’s clarification interaction among students
can be defined as “In the era of communicative language U.S.A. teaching,
interaction is, in fact, the heart of communication; it is what communication
is all about” (Brown. H.D, 1994)
How do increase the intellectual
interaction among the learners and the teacher in an ESL classroom?
There are many strategies,
activities, and procedures that can be used to increase the intellectual interaction
among the learners and the teacher in an ESL classroom.
Cooperative learning strategy
It is a very popular
strategy used by teachers in English as a second language learning classrooms. There
the teacher allows the student to work in small groups. Each group member works
to achieve a common goal as a team. They exchange ideas with each other
and find solutions to problems. The teacher assists them as a facilitator and
the students-centered learning classroom is visualized. Some cooperative learning activities that
can be practiced in the English language learning classroom are Think-Pair-Share,
Jigsaw, Numbered Heads Together, Round Robin, and Carousel, etc.
§ Think-Pair-Share
In this cooperative learning activity, the teacher divides the
class into many groups and poses a question to each group. Each student has
given a minute to think about the question and they have given chance to
discuss it with the near group member and then allow to share the answer with the
whole class.
§
Jigsaw
It is another cooperative learning strategy in which the group
participants have to divide a general topic into sub-topics among group
members. Each group does the same task and later after researching the topic,
each group has to present their topic as collective teamwork.
§ Numbered Heads Together
It is another interesting cooperative task done in English as a
Second Language learning classrooms.
Here the groups in the classroom are numbered from 01 to 05. Each group
includes five participants. The teacher asks one question from all the groups,
she has given a limited time to prepare and randomly she asks the answer from any
group.
These cooperative activities enhance the interaction among
students during the learning hours. Every student is actively engaged in the
lesson, and their oral communication and language proficiency improves with their face-to-face
interaction and interdependency with
each other.
Question and answer sequential method
In this method, the teacher poses a question based on an English
lesson and requires the answer from the students. It may be either from volunteers
or randomly selected learners. It is done as a whole class group activity. The
teacher is able to identify whether the students understand the lesson or not
from their answers. This process really enhances the interaction between the
teacher and the learner. They are able to communicate with the teacher by using
their second language to make an answer. They actively engage in the lesson and
their learner autonomy is also enhanced with this kind of interactive session.
Classroom arrangement
The arrangement of seating
in the classroom has highly impacted the enhancement of the intellectual
interaction among learners and the teacher. There are six major seating
arrangement such as traditional, roundtable, semi-circle, double horseshoe,
group pods and pair pods. Rather than traditional way of seating, today
teachers have used other seating methods in the classroom which tighten the rapport
between the teacher and the student. If there is a very strong rapport between
the learners and the teacher and among learners, they can maintain good interaction
with good communication as well as the students are very comfortable with their
studies.
Incorporate fun and humor
into lessons (Kinesthetic learning activities)
As the facilitator or the
instructor of the students, it is the teacher’s responsibility to teach the lesson
with fun and excitement. This makes students very motivated. They don’t like
to take notes all over the session. They love to laugh and enjoy the session
with the teacher very interactively. Such that, learners enjoy lessons by doing
many kinesthetic activities tapping, snapping fingers, and clapping. This makes an
active learning procedure and more and more increases the interaction between
learners and the teacher.
In conclusion, intellectual
interaction is a key component that teachers use to make ESL classrooms very
effective and beneficial to the students. It tightens the rapport between the teacher and the learners. Significantly, through interactive sessions learners
are learned from the teacher, learners are learned from their peers, and the teacher
learned from the students.
The descriptive article defines intellectual interaction as the formal relationship between the teacher and the learners in a classroom. Although intellectuality is not directly mentioned, the word "formal" hints out that intellectual interaction is more important than idle talk. A very significant idea presented in the article is, "interaction is the heart of communication" which stresses the validity of classroom interaction. The writer sees the teacher-learner interaction as a positive factor to increase learner motivation. It is successful that cooperative learning is exemplified as a successful strategy for intellectual interaction. It will be more convincing if the questioning strategy is more elaborated. As a whole the article describes why intellectual interaction is important and how it can be implemented. An informative article...
ReplyDeleteThis article describes the intellectual interaction at the very beginning and how the teacher's involvement directly influences the learning progress of the student. Under the sub-title of the strategies that can use to increase interaction in the classroom, the writer has mentioned several strategies and activities accordingly. This article well described how those activities and strategies play a vital role in implementing the teacher-and learner interaction in an ESL classroom.
ReplyDeleteGreat work !!
Hey Prathibani. Nice to see your post on this blog. You have given a cooperative learning strategy as a method for interaction. I think cooperative activities are the foundation for interaction. You have given many examples of cooperative activities and the steps to do them. It is really useful for any ESL teacher. Additionally, I would like to add kinaesthetic-based games that can in cooperate humor into the classroom. Any English as a second language teacher can use the whispering game, hangman, storytelling memory game, and role-playing to keep the active environment in the classroom. I hope this helps all the aspiring ESL teachers.
ReplyDeleteAs we read the article, the games that the author has shared to increase the intellectual interaction between the teacher and learners in the ESL classroom attract the readers. The author has explained cooperative learning in a broad way, in which she has related the language learning games like jigsaw, think-pair-share, and numbered heads together, which are very popular among ESL teachers. The facts that the author has shared under the kinesthestic learning styles are interesting in that a new teacher has a lot to learn about the kinestheic activities to use in the classroom. A useful article!
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ReplyDeletewhen I was reading this article, I had a feeling like 'wow' by looking at those games. Dear Prathibhani you have come up with explanations on those games, therefore this will be an inspiring article to everyone who are looking for effective games that can be done in an ESL classroom. you have paid more attention on cooperative learning, and have described it way more broadly. moreover, you believe that the teacher-learner interaction as a positive factor to increase learner motivation and that could be done through cooperative learning. yes, it is true. A useful article. cheers!
ReplyDeleteThis is a lengthy article. But in this informative article, the very first paragraph includes what is intellectual interaction and the teacher's involvement in the teaching process. Especially students' success in learning depends on the negative interactive environment or the positive interactive environment. This is the plus point of the writer. Because the teacher's involvement with the students affects them negatively or positively. This teacher's positive interaction motivates the students.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting article Prathibhani! However, I don't think that the teacher's and the students' relationship should be formal in order to have an intellectual interaction. What I think is, it is better to have mutual respect, especially the student should respect the teacher. In that way more healthy teacher-student relationship will be made. You have nicely organized your article. What I love the most about the article is the classroom activities that you have suggested to enhance the intellectual interaction through co-operative learning. When I was schooling, I always thought that it is always the best when the teacher make us involve in several games. That way I feel so energetic than being in a traditional classroom.
ReplyDeleteJob well done and cheers for the great content!
Very insightful post. The definition of intellectual engagement and the role of the instructor in the teaching process are both included in the first paragraph. She has provided a general explanation of cooperative learning and tied it to popular language learning games used by ESL teachers, such as jigsaw, think-pair-share, and numbered heads and have paid more attention on cooperative learning, and have described it way more broadly. As explained in the article it is clear that cooperative learning could be used to boost learner motivation because teacher-student interaction is a positive influence in motivation.
ReplyDeleteHi, Prathibani. The essay is attractive at first sight, and you utilized images and neatly aligned your article. When I read the post, I learned many key facts on how to increase the level of intellectual interaction between the teacher and the students in an ESL classroom. You have given pertinent examples and clearly expressed your viewpoint on the subject. It's great to read about the interesting games you mentioned that are related to the subject. The intellectual relationship between the teacher and the student can be developed or even increased, in my opinion, by utilizing interactive sessions like games. Great work !
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