Interactive Teaching Method For Communication Enhancement: by V. Jeya Santhi Catherin Edward R. Selvam
Interactive Teaching Method For Communication Enhancement: by V. Jeya Santhi Catherin Edward R. Selvam
Interactive Teaching Method For Communication Enhancement: by V. Jeya Santhi Catherin Edward R. Selvam
Introduction
Research Scholar in English (Part-Time), Holy Cross College (Autonomous), Trichy (Affiliated
to Bharathidasan University) & Assistant Professor in English, V. H. N. Senthikumara Nadar
College (Autonomous), Virudhunagar, India.
†
Associate Professor, PG & Research Department of English, Holy Cross College
(Autonomous), Trichy (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University), India.
‡
Associate Professor & Head, Department of English, V.H.N.Senthikumara Nadar.College
(Autonomous), Virudhunagar (Affiliated to Madurai Kamaraj University), India.
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Basically, the teacher controls the instructional process, the lecture content
is delivered to the class by her/him and the students listen to the lecture. Thus,
the learning mode tends to be passive and the learners play little part in their
learning process. This learning approach can be found in almost all educational
institutions and universities in India. In such a lecture, students assume a purely
passive role and their concentration fades off after 15-20 minutes.1
Researchers such as Long (1975) and Long and Porter (1985), Pica and
Doughty (1985) made a basic distinction between a "lockstep" organization of
classroom interaction where activities are teacher-fronted and a small-group
format. They explained "lockstep" as a situation where the whole class is
moving along together, where all the students are "locked" into the same
activity at the same time, at the same pace and where the teacher is the
primary, even the only, initiator. Students are frequently "observers" of others
and there is little flexibility whereas in a small-group format, each and every
learner has an opportunity to contribute in the learning process.
Long (1975: 216) comments more critically, "The teacher who attempts to
conduct a large, heterogeneous group of … 30 secondary age EFL students
through a language programme as one unit is obliging all the students to cover
the same ground, at the same time, at the same pace, via the same approach,
method and technique, and using the same material". In such a context, he
argues, 29 out of 30 people will be "unemployed" at any one time, at least as
far as observable learning behavior is concerned.
In Richards and Rodgers (2001: 247-248), curriculum planners debate
over a second language teaching method as part of a broader set of educational
planning decisions. But absent from traditional view of methods is a concept of
learner-centeredness and teacher-creativity … and that teaching methods must
be flexible and adaptive to learners’ needs and interests.
Telling is not teaching and listening is not learning. In such a situation,
adopting interactive teaching methodology in the language classroom is the
only way to make the learners get motivated and enthusiastic in the learning
process. Kevin Yee from the University of Central Florida, affirms that
teaching involves an open-minded plan for helping students meet and exceed
their educational goals. Teaching styles may differ from teacher to teacher and
class to class. Yet every teaching objective must include a structured but
flexible process for student advancement. Interactive teaching styles
incorporate a multitude of goals beneath a single roof. Interactive classes are
designed around a simple principle: without practical application, students
often fail to comprehend the depths of the study material. Whereas students
often lose interest during lecture-style teaching, interactive teaching styles
promote an atmosphere of attention and participation and make the learning
process interesting and exciting.2
Elliot W. Eisner who is known for his work in arts education, curriculum
studies, and educational evaluation states that "the ultimate aim of education is
to enable individuals to become the architects of their own education and
1
Retrieved from goo.gl/NX1wPd.
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Retrieved from goo.gl/7nXBwq.
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i. All colleges are required to offer Part I and Part II languages in all the
first four semesters of all UG programme.
ii. Practical application of languages should be included in Internal
Assessment (IA). 15% of the 40% of Internal Assessment is devoted for
practical functional application in languages (English and other
languages).
iii. Internal Assessment which carries 40 marks is divided into 25 marks
for theoretical components viz, tests, seminars, assignments etc., and 15
marks for practical application in languages (Speaking, Listening and
Comprehension, Reading and Comprehension – each 5 marks).
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English teaching has also been categorized under skill objectives and
cognitive objectives.
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Population
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Methodology
Research instrument
Analysis of data
Hypothesis
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Table 2 shows that by observing the Mean, it can be understood that the
performance of the respondents "Before Interactive Method" (during Lecture
Method) has 28.3636 as the mean score. But "After Interactive Method", the
Mean score of the respondents is increased to 30.6364. These differences seem
to be supporting our hypothesis, but to ascertain whether this result is
significant, the Paired Sample Test must be examined.
The Standard Deviation shows that the spread of performance "After
Interactive Method" is (4.58134) larger than "Before the Interactive Method"
i.e. during Lecture Method (3.43528). Standard Error Mean is an estimate of
the Standard Deviation of the sampling distribution of the Mean. The Standard
Error "Before Interactive Method" (during Lecture Method) is 0.59801 and
"After Interactive Method", it is increased to 0.79751.
Here p value which is less than 0.05 shows that the respondents
consistently got better scores "After Interactive Method" when compared to
"Before Interactive Method" (during Lecture Method). So, the data is highly
correlated.
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In Table 4, the Mean value displays the difference between the means of
participants’ performance in the formative and summative examinations of the
second and third semesters.
The Standard Deviation indicates that the standard deviation of all the
different scores is 3.85902. The Standard Error Mean indicates the differences
in the Mean. We would expect by chance if the null hypothesis is true. But our
Mean difference which is -2.2728 suggests that the data does not support the
null hypothesis. Our calculated t value is the ratio of these two values.
t value = -2.2728/-0.67177
(mean value)
t value = -3.383
(original value)
The 95% confident intervals indicate that we are 95% confident that the
true population differences in Mean (-2.2728) will be between upper (-0.9044)
and lower (-3.6411) limits. This measure is often used as a supplementary
indicator of statistical significance. The t value is -3.383 at the significant level
of 0.002 at 32 level of freedom. It shows that the significant value is less than
0.05 at 5% level of significance.
Hence it is obvious that the marks and performance of the students "after"
the interactive teaching methodology is better than their performance "before
interactive" i.e. during the lecture method. It could be concluded that the null
hypothesis can be rejected and the alternative hypothesis can be accepted.
Findings
The present study shows that the classroom is clearly a place where people
have to work together, essentially requiring a compromise between their own
individuality and the dynamics of the whole group. It is ideally a co-operative
environment where structuring activities in different ways can allow for the
establishment of a cohesive and collaborative work.
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Pair work, group work and teamwork are not identical terms. Pair work
requires organization of the learners on the part of the teacher and it can be
activated in all the classrooms, for instance - a student may be asked to work
with the student near him/her; or it may be between students of equal
proficiency; or as per the situation and the task demands. Group work, by
nature, is a more complex structure as it requires the performance of the
learners in different roles assigned to them especially of communicative and
interactive setting as well as a certain amount of physical reorganization of the
classroom. Co-operation in the classroom is encouraged and these are
undoubtedly positive factors (McDonough and Shaw 2003: 204).
The researcher adopted and applied all these different social patterns (pair/
group/team work) in the language classroom for teaching the second language.
Practical application of Interactive techniques such as Schema Theory,
Intensive Reading, Note-making, Summarizing, Word Grouping/Chunking,
Pause, Tone-groups, Skimming, Scanning, Interactional Listening Skill, Integrated
Skills, Institutional Writing Skill, Compositional Skills etc. were applied while
teaching the items of the course to the students. For example, while teaching
the poem "The Solitary Reaper" by William Wordsworth, a brief note on the
poet and the background of the poem were given to the students. Then, team
work, group work and individual work were allotted to them. For instance, as
the poem has four stanzas, four teams of students were formed randomly. The
learners were directed to read the stanza allotted to them silently and they were
advised to comprehend the meaning of the stanza by discussing it with their
team members.
Then each team should come to the front; the first team member to read
aloud the stanza; the second one to explain the gist; the third one to identify the
poetic devices; and the last one to summarize. The observers were directed to
question them if they had doubts.
As far as pair work is concerned, the students were divided into pairs; one
student was directed to question the other; then the other had to find out the
answer. For individual work, they were asked to find synonyms of new words
or to identify poetic devices such as rhyme scheme, rhythmic pattern,
alliteration, simile etc. Finally, the researcher again elucidated the meaning and
the poetic techniques of the poem in detail. These teaching techniques help the
learners - to develop their reading skill, to read with tone-groups, to
comprehend the meaning of the stanza, to appreciate poetic devices, to frame
questions and to discuss and find answers.
An analysis of the educational background of the participants’ parents, the
essential one in their learning process is shown below:
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The criterion displays the fact that the learners should obviously take care
of their studies by themselves and at such a situation, only teaching using an
interactive method in the language classroom should come in hand to make
them interact in the target language and be "employable".
Recommendations
Albert Einstein’s popular quotes, "I never teach my pupils, but I provide
the conditions in which they can learn" and "Education is not the learning of
facts, but the training of the mind to think" expose his passion for holistic
learning. Creating a situation which motivates language learning is the needed
requirement of second language acquisition and so this study is a practical
application of interactive teaching methodology in the language classroom. In
such an interactive classroom, each student has more chance to speak in the
target language and has more involvement in language use. Instead of the
threatening atmosphere of the lockstep classroom, there is positive atmosphere
which encourages impetus and possibilities of self-expression. Teamwork in
the classroom is encouraged. The sharing and discussion of ideas are more
"natural" which makes the classroom hypothetically vibrant. It stimulates an
assertive environment which is different from the normal class room.
Malamah-Thomas (1987) isolates "action" and "reaction" as characteristics
of traditional lockstep arrangements and stresses the need for "interaction", "a
constant pattern of mutual influence and adjustment", whether between
learners, or teacher and learners. The interactive pattern includes the
relationship of individuals, pairs, groups and the whole class to the product or
learning outcome. A teacher working with a mixed proficiency group has the
flexibility to allocate activities according to the learners’ levels. The learners
also do their best when there is interactive teaching/learning in pairs, groups or
teams. They learn to ask questions and it exhibits that the teaching process is
learning-centered which further motivates everybody’s thinking and learning.
The findings of this analysis also confirm that the level of language
produced by the students will be considerably "higher" after the training in an
interactive teaching method. Hence, the English teachers should be ready to
change their attitude towards Part II English syllabus, a skill-based one, to be
more communicative and interactive so that their students should not get
fettered because of lack of their communicative competency.
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Conclusion
References
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Retrieved from goo.gl/LzsVkQ.
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