Increasing intellectual interaction among the learners and the teacher in an ESL classroom can be indicated as an essential requirement in the teaching learning process. This idea of intellectual interaction can be understood as developing higher order thinking skills of the learner interlocutors within the classroom discourse community through instruction interaction and peer interaction. This phenomenon can be understood through Bloom’s Taxonomy to learning, socio-cultural perspectives and theories to interaction.
Intellectuality
Intellectuality is the achievement of an individual to be able to critically think, research and reflect about the reality about the society. In Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of learning (1956), a hierarchical classification of types of learning is presented. According to that, knowledge as the basic ability to recall facts, comprehension as the ability to understand relationship among facts and application as the ability to use information in varied contexts are considered the lower levels of learning. Analysis, synthesis, and evaluation which are relatively described as the ability to identify interrelationship among facts, to combine varied information into a new coherent whole and to make judgements are recognized as higher-order skills which require more complex thinking. As mentioned in modern learning objectives, the era of knowledge which believed in receptive learning, rote-learning and mechanical drilling has been replaced by critical and imaginative thinking skills. Exploration, information collection and comprehension, problem solving, negotiation and collaboration have been identified as the ideal learning outcomes in a language classroom.
Language as a tool or object?
According to
sociocultural perspectives, relationship between outside world and an
individual occurs through symbolic tool called language by which meanings are
negotiated. It is the psychological tool which becomes the tool for thought.
Language is the primary mediating tool for exchanging information and knowledge
sharing. It is significant that language is not a sole individual
accomplishment. Language is the tool for social interaction. Consequently,
language should be a tool of the subject than an object of the subject in a
language classroom. An ESL classroom is also a social learning discourse
community.
From Knowledge-based to Skills-based...
Furthermore,
interactional competence theory (Young,2008) declares that meaning construction
is a joint achievement of all participants. This has paved the way for shifting
from knowledge-based teaching to skills-based learning in an ESL classroom.
Interaction in classroom enhances language learning as a social enterprise.
In addition to these,
research has found that language use through interaction directly affect
cognitive development. For instance, language use facilitates effective
thinking (Gardner and Hutch, 1989) and through use of language thinking is
shaped (Vigotsky,1978). Even psychologists declare that breadth of language use
is related to degree and direction of thinking development.
Instruction Interaction
Subsequently, the teacher and the learners of an ESL classroom have the responsibility in increasing intellectual interaction. The teaching style of the interlocutor must be adjusted for instruction interaction. The most frequently used classroom method of enhancing thinking can be identified as questioning. The teacher knows that lecture-based/ fact-based questioning approach does not facilitate thinking. (Stenberg and Martin,1998). The pedagogue is expected to follow Initiation-Response-Follow-up pattern (Spiral IRF method)/ IRF(E/F) which leads to elaboration of the activity. (Sinclair,1975). The educator’s questions can also encourage students to explicit their thoughts and make continuous contributions for the activity. For an effective engagement teacher must control the topic and turn-taking of conversation. In such a classroom, interlocutors actively engage critically and constructively with each other’s ideas: offering statements and suggestions while justifying and reasoning challenges to jointly make the decisions through discussion.
The teacher in an
intellectual interacting classroom promotes student communication, negotiation,
meaning co-construction and participation. Referential questions play a major
role in this approach. In this kind of classroom, it is more likely for
students to think and integrate different subject knowledge to reason with
others. Language here is used as a cultural tool. Referential questions are
followed by extended wait time or rehearsal time for the purpose of brain
storming. All can take part in the conversation since they are focused on
personal meaning and opinion rather than testing memorization of teacher-input.
Error correction is considered according to the “let-it-pass” principle and
errors are led for self-repair or peer-repair which is expected for further
communication. (Firth,1996). Turn -taking which is basically managed by the
pedagogue helps for whole-class participation.
Peer Interaction
For the intellectual
interaction, teacher as a facilitator must enhance learner-learner interaction
through pair work and group work. Learners should be convinced that peer
interaction is an essential part in language production. They should be
motivated for autonomous learning and meanwhile teacher can monitor from group
to group making sure that they are using the target language. Not only
role-plays, discussions, information gap activities, problem solving activities
even individual reading, listening, and writing tasks can be integrated for
peer interaction.
To conclude, intellectual interaction is an ultimate result of a successful joint attempt among pedagogue and learners.
Your views are warmly welcome😊😊😊
References:
1, Obstacles and
Opportunities for Developing Thinking through Interaction in Language
Classrooms, 2011, Thinking Skills and Creativity, http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tsc
This is a descriptive, well- written article as well as informative article. It explores the intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom with reference to Blooms Taxonomy. In brief, this article mentions that development of higher order thinking skills through instruction interaction and peer interaction develops the idea of intellectual interaction among the learners and the teacher. Further the author has described the teacher- student interaction with special reference to sociocultural perspective and interactional competence theory. The use of descriptive language, makes it easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteHey Sandamali. What a fantastic post! Your article is one of the few articles which is focused on a different perspective on this topic within this blog. You have looked at this topic based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and based on socio-cultural perspectives. You have given me chock full of useful information which I must use in my pedagogy journey. You have said that intellectuality is mainly based on higher-order skills. I also agree with you, but I think it is somewhat challengeable for any teacher to improve higher-order skills (because every child doesn’t have the same IQ). I have a quick question- “What do you mean by telling that interaction in the classroom enhances language learning as a social enterprise?” I would appreciate it if you can elaborate further.
ReplyDeleteBloom's taxonomy: a different perspective is displayed among all the articles in the blog. The author has developed a very theoretical approach to the intellectuality between the teacher and learner in the ESL classroom. She has broadly outlined the interaction between teacher and learner where the teacher and learner have an equal responsibility in the process of interaction. For someone who loves a theratical explanation of intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom, this is the article!
ReplyDeleteThis article can be considered a well-formed article with several sub-topics. In the beginning, the writer has given a brief introduction to Intellectuality using the theory of Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of learning. Then she used several strategies to support the question. Among them, peer interaction is one of the best ways of implementing intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom.
ReplyDeleteGreat Info!!
From the very first view, I could understand that your article is going to be different. one point is, your topic. yeah, see..... the other fact is, you have elaborated the details in Bloom's Taxonomy and socio-cultural perspectives to the intellectuality between the teacher and learner in the ESL classroom. your broad introduction has discussed the interaction between teacher and learner while explaining that, both parties should equally participated in the process of interaction. this article taught me facts which I have not learned earlier. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis article leads to inform that higher order thinking skills of a learner create a path to intellectual interaction through instruction interaction and peer interaction. This explanation explores a different kind of idea in the reader's mind, the writer precisely conveys the idea. Here mention how intellectuality is important to an individual regarding Bloom's taxonomy of learning. A language is a symbolic tool that can appear as a psychological tool that explains language as a tool of thought and this is the best way to social interaction. It highlights the type of interaction that causes increased mutual understanding. These ideas are somewhat different than other articles and mention rare things that anyone has not talked much.
ReplyDeleteBravo!! What an article Sandamali. Your article is very different from the others. Your article is the only article that includes several aspects of teaching beyond what is being asked!. I love your point that says language is the tool for social interaction''. ' Whatever the language, it won't be that sort of a language if it is just for an individual. It is through the language that we give value to our relationships. The same goes to the intellectual interaction. May be not through a spoken language but in any other sort of a language we will interact with others. So it is very true that the language is a tool for social interaction. Once again, great content!
ReplyDeleteThe intellectual interaction between the teacher and student in the ESL classroom has been approached very theoretically by the author. This is an excellent and educational post. In a nutshell, this article discusses how instruction interaction and peer interaction promote the development of higher order thinking skills, which promote the concept of intellectual engagement between students and teachers. It draws attention to the types of interaction that develops higher understanding between people. The idea that language is a tool for social interaction is undoubtedly correct. Great article.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandamali! This article is an article flooded with various information regarding the intellectual interactions in ESL classrooms. Your references have well reinforced your thinking and your well-standing knowledge and understanding of the topic. Your point out on the vitally important teacher and student interaction is an outstanding factor towards the development of intellectual interactions makes the article which can deliver a clear understanding to the readers. The interactions between the students are the best way of cultivating intellectual interactions is one of my strong opinions and you have successfully delivered it to the reader. Good job !
ReplyDelete