Practice for Teaching English as a Second Language to Students in Hong Kong: Analyzing my Own Classroom Interaction

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Recommended: Classroom management and approaches

Introduction Classroom interaction has been widely recognized as one of the most crucial factors in a second language classroom that allows second language learning to take place. As pointed out by Tsui (1995: 11), ."..the language used affects the nature of interaction, which in turn affects the opportunities for learning that are made available." This statement is exceptionally true in Hong Kong context because English are seldom used by students in their daily lives. English lessons seem to be their solely exposure to this target language. Therefore, effective classroom interaction plays a particularly important role in English lessons of Hong Kong secondary schools. In this essay, I am going to explore my interactions with students in my English lessons during my Teaching Practice. I will analyze the interaction patterns according to different areas of focus and discuss my strength and weakness in each aspect. Then, I will suggest some improvement for my weakness by rewriting some parts of the transcript so as to maximize students' language input and enhance their motivation. Finally, I will summarize the knowledge I learnt in this module and its importance for my professional development as a teacher. Focus of discussion Based on the aspects suggested by Tsui (1995), I would like to discuss my classroom interaction from four important aspects: explanation, instruction, questioning and feedback to students. In the first part, I will first talk about my strength and weakness of my classroom interaction based on the transcript which can be found in appendix P.7-P.11. and then I will propose some improvements for my weak aspects. In this lesson, I continued my previous topic "organic farming." I first pointed out ... ... middle of paper ... ...ch had already been discussed. (i.e. healthy). ("Yes...yes ... It is healthy.... because it does not use any chemical.") I believe I can do better in giving feedback to Kiki. For example, I may say "Good point. Organic food contains no chemical. So, will it damage our environment?" to elicit her to give my predetermined answer. Conclusion By analyzing my own classroom interaction during Teaching Practice, I recognize my own strength and weakness in different aspects of classroom interaction. For my strength, I can continue to try them out in the coming Teaching Practice and see if any further modification can be made. For my weakness, I need to think about other strategies, try them out and reflect on their effectiveness. I also realize the significant role played by the interaction between teachers and students in an effective second language classroom.

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