What is intellectual interaction?
Intercultural interaction within the ESL classroom can be a challenge for many facilitators. Classroom interaction tends to be diverse. Intellectual interaction happens when the learner-learner, learner-teacher, or teacher-teacher may exchange knowledge resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other's intellectualism. Here, the teacher and students communicate back and forth in English, exchanging and interchanging their thoughts and ideas.
Why it is important to increase intellectual interaction among learners?
Many educationalists believe that learning does not occur in the classroom and rather believes that it happens in the real world. In line with interaction, Vygotsky suggests the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which describes the capability of learners to receive help from their social environment. It pinpoints that learning is not just an individual task but rather a social process. Therefore, intellectual interaction helps to bring the learning process outside the classroom into the real world through socialization.
It promotes an intellectual dialogue- a space where intellectual stimuli are presented, a place where ideas can be shared and discussed without the interference of teachers. When the teacher is not presented in the learning environment, the learner felt that he/she is not being monitored. It helps to take away the learning pressure as it removes the power hierarchy. Additionally, intellectual interaction enhances the learner's autonomy. Removing the teachers from the learning environment may improve the learner's ability to self-learning. Therefore, it is important to increase intellectual interaction among students.
Strategies for promoting intellectual interaction in ESL classroom
1. Improving questioning strategies.
Asking learners questions they can respond to is the best way to improve intellectual interaction. The teacher must adjust his or her questions to the various learning levels and capacities of the students while he or she is asking them. Attention should be given to safeguarding students' self-esteem and fostering their growth of self-confidence in order to activate the teacher-learner interaction and guarantee that all students participate.
2. Implementing cooperative learning
Working together not only helps students gain crucial social skills, but it's also a great method to teach them how to relate to others from different backgrounds. Students from various socioeconomic origins, intellectual abilities, and physical prowess collaborate to learn the material, address issues, and complete assignments. They pick up on respecting and accepting individual diversity. In a cooperative learning environment, everyone in the group participates and works together to overcome conflicts. Additionally, group members strive to complete assignments with the least amount of teacher assistance.
3. Strengthening the teacher-student rapport
The relationship between the teacher and the students is crucial for improving classroom interaction, and its value cannot be overstated. A good teacher should be well-versed in the backgrounds of his or her students since this information serves as a foundation for the teacher's planning at each stage of the instructional process. Mutual respect between the teacher and the students must be the cornerstone of every successful partnership. Respect for others is regarded as a crucial component of education and one of the key factors in building strong relationships between teachers and students. In turn, this will make both the teacher and the students equally accountable for themselves and the class.
Teacher's responsibility in an intellectually interactive classroom
1. Teachers must be able to provide real language situations.
2. Make sure that each student takes part in the interaction process.
3. Teachers must be able to create an interactive learning process where the students feel motivated.
4. Teachers should build a positive relationship between the students and themselves.
5. Teachers should be able to show the potential each student has during the learning process.
For language teaching and learning in the classroom to be more effective, there must be active student participation. Therefore, intellectual interaction is vital for fulfilling it. As the author of this article, I believe that these techniques will be applied by many aspiring English language teachers and hope that they will use intellectual interaction as a model in their teaching pedagogy.
I welcome all to share your ideas in the comment section! If you enjoyed this article, share it with your friends and colleagues!
By Harini Abeysekara
With the opening passage of the well structured article, the writer clearly defines the intellectual interaction as a process occurs "...when the learner-learner, learner-teacher and teacher-teacher may exchange knowledge resulting in a reciprocal effect..." which points out the all possible interactions in a language classroom. To prove the importance of the intellectual interaction the writer presents theoretical ideas of Vigotsky which emphasizes the language learning a social process. But stress-free- interaction is also pointed out as a catalyst for increasing learner competence. The writer presents very effective strategies like questioning and cooperative learning for intellectual interaction. The article is concluded with the emphasis of teacher's responsibility to promote intellectual interaction. A descriptive and motivating article...
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the article is very much attractive and it makes the reader to go through the article thoroughly. Several unknown facts about ESL teaching has been discovered through reading the article. The way the socialization and intellectual interaction has been linked is very significant. At some point of the socialization process, the students will achieve social competence through achieving socially sanctioned goals such as working as a group, engage with lessons and etc. These goals will guide the student to serve to integrate into social groups where the intellectual interaction will take place. Likewise a very well organized and descriptive article.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your article. I noticed a unique way of addressing this topic in your article. At the very beginning, the writer has given an informative introduction to what is intellectual interaction and the importance of increasing intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom. It is important to say that the writer has finely pointed out that the learning process links with socialization. Besides the strategies which help to implement the teacher-learner interaction, the writer has pointed out the responsibility of building teacher-learner interaction for a better understanding of the reader.
ReplyDeleteGreat Info!!
From beginning to end, your article keeps the reader engaged with its attractive images and precise writing. The detailed paragraph on what intellectual interaction is enough for someone who needs a better understanding of the intellectual interaction between the teacher and the learner in an ESL classroom. The author gives the exact idea of what the teacher-learner interaction is, and the strategies are timely and effective. The athor uniquely brings out the responsibilities that a teacher has within a classroom to increase the intellectual interaction with the learners. This article will help a new teacher learn exactly what the teacher-learner interaction is in the ESL classroom.
ReplyDeleteHey Harini, at a glance, everyone can believe that this article is in organized way, because you have segmented the details under several sub-topics. you have provided enough details to understand exactly what the intellectual interaction between teacher and learner is. your this statement, 'Removing the teachers from the learning environment may improve the learner's ability to self-learning', can be argumented. because, a teacher can promote learner autonomy through the curriculum by integrating the principles of autonomy into the learning goals, the learning process, tasks, learner strategies and reflection on learning. but removing the teacher from learning environment is doubtful to me. anyway, the article is well-written and interesting. you have done a great job.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article to me. Because the facts of the article attract the readers. At the very beginning of the article, she precisely explores what intellectual interaction is. Another plus point is she stated 3 strategies to promote intellectual interaction. So it is a very real thing. Because it is a possible task in the ESL classroom. In this teaching, process teacher has the responsibility to interact with the students. This article briefly describes the most significant facts. So this is an informative article.
ReplyDeleteThis is an informative and readable article. As well as this article quickly grabs the attention of the readers. It describes intellectual interaction practices for learners in detailed manner. From the beginning to end, the author has structured the article well. First it defines the intellectual interaction and then its importance. After that intellectual interaction further describes through strategies and at last teacher's responsibility in an ESL classroom very clearly brought out by the writer. According to the writer, to have an effective ESL classroom , students' active participation is very important. This article even helps ESL teachers to implement those techniques in their teaching pedagogy.
ReplyDeleteHello Harini I'll refer to you as a savior for the simple reason that you have clearly clarified every point with the use of examples and verifiable facts. Even someone with a basic understanding of this subject can learn more by reading this particular article. You split the article into themes and underlined each important detail from the start to the end. I learned new ideas from reading this article about how to improve the intellectual engagement between the teacher and the students in an ESL classroom. Thanks for the valuable facts Harini! A well-planned article.
ReplyDeleteIt is a well written article about intellectual interaction between ESL learner and a teacher. The author gives very informative introduction to the topic. She discussed the strategies that can be use by a teacher to strengthen intellectual interaction of the students. This provides me a new facts on how important it is to increase intellectual interaction in an ESL classroom. This article is somewhat imaginative because she used examples and facts to clarify her points. Overall, it is an attractive and informative article.
ReplyDelete