Article_EFL Classroom Research

STUDENTS' VERBAL ACTIONS AND INTERACTION PATTERNS IN EFL CLASSROOM

Susilo

Abstract: This study aims at investigating the verbal actions the students perform when they join the course of Translation I in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom and how they behave in relation to their teacher and among peers in such EFL class. It focuses on describing the students’ verbal actions and the interaction patterns occuring during the classroom interaction. This is a classroom-based research using an observational case study as its design. The subjects of the study are undergraduate students of the English Department, FKIP Muhammadiyah University Jember. To collect the data, a non-participant observation was used. Discourse Analysis, and Qualitative Interaction Analysis were used to analyize the data. The results of the study reveal that the students' verbal actions tend to form four moves, each of which has different types of verbal actions on the basis of the purposes the students intend to do. The four moves are 1) Soliciting Move; 2) Responding Move; 3) Reacting Move, and 4) Bidding Move. Meanwhile, there are five patterns of interaction found in the classroom process, i.e. 1) Teacher class interaction with verbal response; 2) Teacher class interaction with non verbal response; 3) Teacher student with verbal response; 4) Teacher student with non verbal response; 5) Teacher student Teacher interaction.

Key Words: Verbal Action, interaction pattern, EFL Classroom.

INTRODUCTION

After for a long time having been preoccupied with a "traditional" research in which the basic concern is issue within the researcher's perspective centers, applied linguistics researchers (e.g. Rounds, 1996; Polio, 1996; Kuiper and Plough, 1996; Markee, 1996, Larsen Freeman, 1996) started to talk about, and do the classroom-based researches (Cf. Sato, 1982; Saville Troike, 1984; Pica and Doughty, 1985; Day, 1984, 1985). An increasing attempt in investigating what is really going on in the classroom seems to be the focus of such a research. The types and quantities of instructional and non instructional tasks, the relative amounts of participation by the teacher and the students, and the functions and forms of language in the interaction, (Chaudron, 1988), among other things, are issues under the intensive investigation of the classroom-based research. At the same moment, various personality, attitudinal, cognitive, and other individual or social factors which are thought of to influence observable classroom behaviors are investigated as well. Thus, the ultimate goal of such a research is to identify those characteristics of classrooms leading to the efficient learning of the instructional content. The student classroom behavior is one of the general issues concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of the classroom instruction.

Researches on such issue have been done focusing on the students' verbal and social interactions. For example, a research conducted by Sato (1982) investigated cultural differences in learners' classroom production. This research was conducted in two university ESL classes, trying to find out the different turn taking styles of Asian and non Asian students. She found that Asians as a group took significant fewer self selected turns than non Asians, with the Asians adhering more strictly to a pattern of bidding for turns in class instead of just speaking out. To know the students classroom behavior leads us to the further investigation of the contribution of the learners to Second Language Acquisition. An attempt to such investigation is of primary importance in the area of Second Language Acquisition because in the classroom language learners can develop their L2 in three ways, i.e. by producing the target language more frequently, more correctly, and in a wider circumstances, by generating input from others, and by engaging in communicative tasks that require negotiation of meaning (Chaudron, 1988). That is why, researches on the students' behavior in the classroom are getting more important to conduct, especially being conducted in classroom based designs in order to know exactly what really happens with such behavior in the classroom.

This notion is in line with the concept brought by the American philosopher, John Dewey, in his populer concept of “the theory of social constructivist”. The idea of this tenet is that there is a triangular relationship for the social construction of ideas among the individual, the community, and the world. In Dewey’s view, learners do not learn in isolation; the individuals learn by being parts of the surrounding community and the world as a whole (Rebecca, 1997). That is why in the constructivist model, learners bring with them prior knowledge and beliefs; learners then construct what they learn and deepen their knowledge by shared experiences; and learners and teachers learn from each other. Thus, teachers look for signals from learners so that they may facilitate understanding. Related to this concept, in terms of language learning and teaching, it is quite an illusion that we ignore the issues of immediate linguistic and socio-educational environments, culture, community, etc. The fact of the matter is that such issues in a great extent influence the language learning. That is why, researchers taking an interactionist stance naturally also recognize the importance of environmental factors, such as the social and linguistic roles played by caregivers, teachers, siblings, and peers in providing language input (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991).

This study is a classroom based research conducted in a 'Translation I' course, one of the courses established by the English Department, FKIP, Muhammadiyah University Jember. This study aims at investigating the verbal actions the students perform when they have a 'Translation I' course in the EFL classroom and how they behave in relation to their teacher and among peers, that is to say how they form interaction patterns in such an EFL class. This study does not search the teacher's talk, though it cannot be away from the researcher's observation, Thus, the main focus of the study are two things, i.e. students' talk and interaction patterns. The following are research questions which are formulated based on the background above:

1. What verbal actions do the students perform during the classroom interaction?

2. What patterns of interactions occur during the classroom interaction?

METHODOLOGY

This is a classroom based research, using an observational case study. This research was conducted in classroom setting of 'Translation I' course in the English Department, FKIP, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember. The events investigated were limited to the students' verbal actions and interaction patterns taking place in 'Translation I” class.

The procedures suggested by Miles and Huberman (1983) was used in this study. The first step was the Data Collection, in which the researcher was collecting the raw data from the transcription and fieldnotes. Secondly, on the basis of the collected data, the researcher was creating categories and classifying these data into such categories (i.e. Data reduction), and the patterns can be found afterward. Next, the classified patterns can be displayed in the Data Display. Finally, the patterns were analyzed to identify the verbal actions and interaction patterns.

The data of this research are verbal interactions which were taken from the transcriptions and fieldnotes. Those data were collected through recording and observing the class interactions. The recording was done during the teaching learning process. Sony Stereo Cassette Corder CFS 1000S tape recorder was used to record the data. The tape recorder was placed in the researcher's pocket, which the students were not aware of. Furthermore, the teacher did not tell the students that they were under the research recording.

During the recording process, non participant observation was done in order to allow the researcher to write fieldnotes in which non linguistic features (i.e. hand-raising, gestures, etc) can be detected. In this case, the researcher was present in the classroom but did not interact either with the students or the teacher during the teaching learning process.

The subjects of the research were undergraduate students taking "Translation I" course in the third semester of their study in the English Department of FKIP, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember. There were approximately 43 students in the classroom.

Those data collected were analyzed to identify the verbal actions of he students and the interaction patterns occurred in the classroom. Discourse Analysis (Coulthard, 1977) and Qualitative Interaction Analysis (van Lier, 1988) were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

This study aims at describing the verbal actions the students perform during the classroom and the patterns of interactions occuring during the classroom interaction. Thus, the aspects discussed in the results of the study are the verbal action and interaction patterns found in the classroom.

Students' Verbal Actions

It is found that the students' verbal actions tend to form four moves each of which has different types of verbal actions on the basis of the purposes the students intend to do. The four moves are 1) Soliciting Move; 2) Responding Move; 3) Reacting Move, and 4) Bidding Move. The following parts are the presentation of each.

Soliciting Move

Soliciting Move is a move where the students intend to evoke teacher's responses. This move occurs when the students feel unclear about the lesson discussed so that they want the teacher to clarify the unclear parts. This move consists of three types, i.e. 1) eliciting for clarification, 2) eliciting for comprehension, and 3) eliciting for confirmation.

Eliciting for Clarification It is a verbal action that is meant to evoke the teacher's response for the sake of the students' clarification of unclear parts of the lesson discussed.

T :OK, remember, the pairs of the alternative parts. Jadi di atas ada pasangan pasangan  Literal and faithful .... What is literal?

LLL : Silent

T : In Indonesian, it is arti harfiah.

F :Kata per kata nya, pak!

T :Ya Word by word.

Eliciting for Comprehension

It is a verbal action which is intended to evoke the teacher's response for comprehending the discussed lesson. This occurs when the students want to understand fully the discussed lesson.

T : In Indonesia it is arti harfiah.

F : Kata per kata nya, pak?

T : Ya Word by word.

M : Etymology!

T : Yeah

Eliciting for Confirmation

It is a verbal action that aims at calling up the teacher's response for confirming something. This occurs when the students want to make sure what they have already understood.

T : So, that answer is incorrect…OK another?…another opinion? No?!So, everyone agrees with the answer?

M : Sir, [raising hand] "Ririn menyanyikan sebuah lagu dengan indah /merdu

F : Betul!

T : Yes, .., that's right.

T : OK very beautifully, remember, very beautifully.

LL : Adverb!

T : Yeah, adverb. So?

Responding Move

Responding Move is a move where the students intend to respond the teacher's eliciting. This move occurs when the students answer the teacher's questions. Based on the way this move occurs, there are three types of responding move, i.e. a) choral response; b) sub group of class response; and c) individual response.

Choral Response is is a verbal action done by the students in the classroom altogether. Usually this verbal action occurs when the question is easy so that all students can answer, leading to the choral answers.

T : The singing ... or the song?

LLL : The singing ... xx ... menyanyi nya.

T : So . . that answer is incorrect ... OK, another? Another opinion? ... No?! So, everyone agrees with the answer?

Sub group of class Response means a verbal action don by some students of the class at a particular time. It happens when some of the students can answer the teacher's questions while some other cannot.

T : OK, listen! "Ririn menyanyikan lagu yang Indah" yang indah ini

menyanyi nya atau lagu nya?

LL : Lagu nya.

M : Menyanyi nya.

Individual Response is a verbal action done by an individual student. This happens when an individual student can answer the question without being followed by other students.

T : Dasar?! No ... that's the first one ... principal? M Headmaster

T : Yes, that's the same with headmaster

Reacting Move

Reacting Move is a move where the students intend to modify (by clarifying, synthesizing or expanding) and/or to rate (positively or negatively) what has been said previously. This verbal action can happen after the teacher's eliciting, informing action or the other students' responding actions. Usually, it is used for acceptance, objection, correction or rejection.

T : Maupun ... atau ... the other?

F : I don't know.

M : Sabani makan sate juga soto.

F : Lo ... negatif kan.

Bidding Move

Bidding Move is a move where the student's verbal action is meant to signify a desire to speak. This is about the way the students start to speak. There are two types of bidding, i.e. 1) by asking permission to speak; and 2) by calling the teacher.

Bidding by asking permission to speak

T : ... and "should possess the style of the translation". What is possess?

M : Excuse me, possess apa process, sir?

F : Mempunyai

T : Possess ….. possessive, possess… memiliki.

Bidding by calling the teacher

T : So, ... That answer, is incorrect, OK, another? Another opinion? No?! Everyone agrees with the answer?

M : Sir, ... "Ririn menyanyikan sebuah lagu dengan indahnya/merdu".

LL : Betuul!

Interaction Pattern

By considering who initiates and participates in the classroom process as a category in the data analysis, it is found that there are five patterns of interaction occurred in the classroom process. The five interaction patterns are 1) Teacher class interaction with verbal response; 2) Teacher class interaction with non verbal response; 3) Teacher student with verbal response; 4) Teacher student with non verbal response 5) Teacher student Teacher interaction.

Teacher Class Interaction Pattern

Teacher class interaction consists typically of two types, i.e. teacher class interaction with verbal responses and teacher class interaction with non verbal responses. This pattern is an eliciting exchange in which the teacher's question is followed by the students' choral answers both verbally and non verbally. Thereby, the interaction between the teacher and the class happens.

T : The singing ... or the song?

LLL : The singing ... xx ... menyanyi nya. (T C Interaction with verbal responses)

T : Kalau principal [writing down the word "principal" and "principle" on the whiteboard] Like this? ... What is it?

LLL : [silent]

(T C Interaction with non verbal responses)

Teacher Student Interaction Pattern

Similarly, teacher student interaction consists typically of two types, namely, teacher student interaction with verbal responses and teacher student interaction with non verbal responses. An eliciting exchange occurs in this interaction, producing the pattern in which the teacher's question is followed by the student's answer individually both in verbal or non verbal forms of answer.

T : Dasar?! ... No, ... that's the first one ... principal?

M : Headmaster.

(Teacher student interaction with verbal response)

T : All right, number seven
A translation should read as a contemporary of the original" What is contemporary? Fatoni?
MI : [silent]

(Teacher student interaction with non verbal response).

Teacher Student Teacher Interaction Pattern

This pattern occurs when the teacher's question is followed by the students' answer, which is then followed by the teacher's comments toward that answer. Or, it happens when the student's answer is not appropriate or correct, so that the teacher needs to correct the answer or elicit other answers from other students.

T : Dasar?! ... No, ... that's the first one ... principal?

M : Headmaster.

T : Yes, that's the same with headmaster. So, you remember? This is Kepala Sekolah [pointing to the word "principal"] and that one is ... prinsip [pointing the word "principle"]. Jadi, ini adalah dasar dasar. You study about The Principle of Translation.

DISCUSSIONS

Students' Verbal Actions

It is obvious that the findings of this study show us four moves in the classroom where we can find different types of students' verbal actions. First, soliciting move consists of three types of verbal actions, i.e. 1) eliciting for clarification, 2) eliciting for comprehension, and 3) eliciting for confirmation. Second, responding move includes such verbal actions as choral response, sub group of class response and individual response. Third, reacting move contains responding for acceptance, objection, correction or rejection. Fourth, bidding move where two ways of signifying a desire to speak are used, i.e. by asking permission to speak and by calling the teacher.

It is not surprising to see the fact that there are various moves in the classroom interaction because the class consists of several components potential to form conversational interaction among peers and between teacher-students. This phenomena hinges on what the so-called “scaffolding”, the terms derrived from the cognitive psychology and L1 research applied in L2 acquisition. In L2 acquisition, scaffolding refers to the provision through conversation of linguistic structures that promote a learner’s recognition or production of those structures or associated forms. This aids learners in gradually incorporating portion of sentences, lexical items, reproducing sounds, etc., in meaningful ways rather than in mechanical repetition or lengthy monoloques.

Interactive features of classroom behavior such as turn-taking, questioning and answering, negotiation of meaning, etc., are of great importance in terms of language acquisition. Therefore, the appearance of the variation of moves and interaction patterns in EFL class gives positive impact in the process of L2 learning.

Furthermore, these findings confirm what Flanders (1970) in Choulthard (1977) mentioned in the "ten categories" as the basic system in classroom interaction. Flanders (1970) identified ten categories based on the analysis of the classroom interaction. The ten categories can be divided into seven for teacher talk, two for pupil talk and one for silence or confusion.

Of the four moves, two moves are in line with what Flanders (1970) called pupil response, that is, soliciting move and responding move; meanwhile the other two moves which belong to pupil initiation are reacting move and bidding move.

It is apparent that the four moves that the students form in the findings of this research are one of the ways learners develop their L2. By making responses and initiations, according to Chaudron, (1988), the students under the investigation develop their L2 by producing the target language more frequently, more correctly (since the teacher will correct them when they make an error/s), and , of course, in wider circumstances. At the same time, the initiation to produce the target language is the behavior in which the notion of input generation can be measured (Chaudron, 1988).

Interaction Pattern

The findings in terms of the patterns of interaction in this study is that there are five types of interaction pattern, i.e. 1) Teacher class interaction with verbal response; 2) Teacher class interaction with non verbal response; 3) Teacher student interaction with verbal response; 4) Teacher student interaction with non¬verbal response; and 5) Teacher student Teacher interaction.

According to Philips (1972) in van Lier (1988), there are four participation structures found in the classroom in terms of speaker audience relationships, leading to the conclusion that these are important characteristics in L2 classroom. The four participation structures are 1) Teacher Whole class; 2) Teacher – Group, 3) Teacher Individual learner; and 4) Group by itself.

The interaction patterns found in this study are in line with what Philips (1972) revealed. However, of the five types of interaction patterns, pattern number 5 (i.e. teacher student teacher interaction pattern) does not confirm exactly with the findings found by Philips. Basically, somehow this particular pattern can be included in what Philips (1,972) called Teacher - individual learner pattern though in different version.

It is worth noting that conversation and instructional exchange between teachers and students provide the best opportunities for the learners to exercise target language skills and get useful feedback (Chaudron, 1988). The five types of interaction patterns as shown in the findings of this research indicate how the students make conversation and instructional exchange with their teacher. This, of course, provide a chance for the students to practice their target language skills. It is obvious that the students in using the target language for practice in the classroom will obtain much feedback from the teacher for they make interaction with the teacher.

CONCLUSIONS

It is apparent that there are variations of verbal actions done by the students during the interaction in the 'Translation I” class in the English Department, FKIP, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember. These variations are consistent after they are compared to other findings from different researchers. There are also variations of interaction patterns occurs in the 'Translation I' class in the English Department, FKIP, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember. This finding is also consistent after compared to other research findings. Students' verbal actions and interaction patterns are availability of authentic TL input and opportunities in L2 classroom since greater exposure to the target language (TL) inside the classroom can be gained by the L2 learners. Students' verbal actions and interaction patterns can be seen as exposure to authentic language activities and input of foreign language classroom,

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