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In a class situation, whether you're online or face-to-face, there are three main types of interaction patterns that are possible between you and the learners. If you're on a CELTA course, you'll have to identify these on your lesson plan
Jo Gakonga explains three main interaction patterns in CELTA teaching with 9 top tips for effective classroom and online language learning.
Key Takeaways
- Avoid teacher monologues and encourage learner participation.
- Use a variety of interaction patterns to keep lessons learner-centered.
- Collaborative work enhances language practice and learner confidence.
- Effective monitoring is essential, with different strategies for online and face-to-face settings.
- Planning interaction patterns in lesson plans improves teaching effectiveness.
Summary
- There are three main interaction patterns in language teaching: teacher to learners, learners working collaboratively, and learners working individually.
- Teacher to learners interaction is useful for instructions, explanations, and feedback but should avoid long monologues.
- Nominating learners to answer questions and using chat box strategies help increase learner participation online.
- Collaborative work in pairs or small groups maximizes learner speaking time and confidence.
- Group size should ideally be three to four learners, balancing manageability and inclusion, especially online.
- Monitoring learners' progress is easier face-to-face but can be done online via shared documents like Google Docs.
- Organized partner changes in physical classrooms can maintain engagement and variety in interaction.
- Individual work is useful for formative assessment and certain tasks but should be a deliberate pedagogical choice.
- Identifying interaction patterns on lesson plans ensures a balanced, learner-centered approach with varied interaction.
- Using these tips can improve classroom management and learner engagement both online and face-to-face.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to interaction patterns in CELTA teaching
- 00:41About Jo Gakonga and overview of interaction patterns
- 01:16Teacher to learners interaction pattern explained
- 02:39Tips for effective teacher talk and learner engagement online
- 03:52Using chat box and shared screens for participation
- 04:32Warning about overusing teacher talk and importance of learner talk time
- 05:23Benefits of pair and group work for language learning
- 06:03Choosing group sizes and monitoring learners online and face-to-face
- 07:15Using shared Google Docs and organizing partner changes
- 08:57Learners working individually and pedagogical considerations
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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and write them in a column probably. So, what are they and how do you choose what's most appropriate for each part of the lesson? And are there any differences when you're teaching online? Want some helpful thoughts about eight
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top tips? Keep watching. I'm Joking Conga from ELTraining.com. I've got over 20 years' experience of being a CELTA tutor and assessor, and if you like this, check out the other things on my website. So, interaction patterns, if you're
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thinking, "What's she talking about?" This is what happens in the classroom between the learners and the teacher. So, this might be the teacher talking, but learning a language is a practical skill, so you need to give the learners
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tasks to do and think about whether those tasks are done best alone or collaboratively. So, let's look at these different interaction patterns that are possible. So, the first one is the teacher talking, and this pattern is the one I guess
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which is probably the first one that springs to mind when you think of a class, and that's the teacher giving learners information, talking to them. And there are, of course, points in the lesson when you do need to tell them
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stuff, but when you're teaching a language, it's hard to imagine a situation where the teacher would just be talking in a monologue without asking questions to make sure that the learners were understanding or following what you were saying.
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So, our first interaction pattern is teacher to learners. Top tip number one: this is one to be careful of, especially if you're feeling nervous, because it's really easy, especially online, I think, to slip into a monologue. Don't do this.
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If you're interested in thinking about teacher talk, I've got another video on that here. But this teacher to learners interaction pattern is useful if you're giving instructions or explanations or feedback, or on a task where you're addressing the whole class and you want
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to elicit answers from them to involve them. Top tip here is to nominate learners to answer your questions. If you just throw out the questions, definitely your more confident learners or the ones who are quicker typing in the chat box are the ones who
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are going to answer. So, share the love around and nominate people. Another good way to get around this online is to get people to answer in the chat box, but tell them not to post it until you tell them. When you've given
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them time, all time to write, then tell them to post their answers at the same time, and then you can see what they all know. Top tip number four: another way to involve more learners in this interaction pattern
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if you're online is to get everybody to contribute their ideas to a shared screen. Google Jamboard is great for this. Okay, I have a warning for you: some teachers get a bit overfond of this pattern, so the learners might be engaged
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and interested, and you might have a nice rapport between them and you as a teacher, and so it feels as if the learners are participating, but you need to be aware of who is doing the majority of the
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talking here. So, let's do a bit of maths. If we've got a 40-minute lesson, for the sake of example, and we've got a smallish class of 10 learners, the teacher is speaking to each learner in turn, so she's speaking for half of the time.
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This means that the very best each of the 10 learners gets two minutes speaking time each. This is just not enough. So, top tip number five is to get them working collaboratively as much as possible: pair work and group work. It's not rocket
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science. If they're speaking in pairs or in small groups with the teacher monitoring around, there's much more opportunity for them to actually use the language that they're learning, that you're trying to teach them, and this is, of course, what we want.
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There are other advantages to working collaboratively too. There's an increased potential for learning. You actually learn from each other, and it will usually increase people's confidence. If I'm not sure of the answer but my friend's a bit more confident than I am,
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then that will probably help me to feel more confident, and also maybe I can help my friend. Top tip six is to think about what the best size might be. Now, online, you might want slightly bigger groups so that you have fewer
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breakout rooms to get round and monitor, but the problem with larger groups is that usually someone gets left out. So, group size is probably kept at a best around three or four, not too much bigger than that. It will depend a bit on the size of your
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class, of course, and whether you're working online or face to face. As I said, while they're working in pairs or in groups, you need to monitor, check their progress, and this is easier in a face-to-face environment because you can
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see everyone. When you're working online, though, you can still see who's got their mics on and who's talking. Tip seven is another method of monitoring groups online, and that's if they're doing a shared writing task, to get them to collaboratively write on a
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shared Google Doc. That means that you can see everybody's work at the same time, and it really helps to see if people are struggling. In a physical classroom, learners can get up and mingle, and this is a good way of changing partners, but
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it can be a bit chaotic. So, top tip number eight is to organize this. One idea is to have a line of learners here and another line opposite at a distance. To change partners, you just get the learners in this line to move down a
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place, and the last one to go around to the end. This means everyone then has a new partner. The interaction pattern we haven't mentioned is learners working individually, and of course, this is useful, particularly if you want to know
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what each of your learners can do. So, if it's part of some kind of formative assessment, for example, learners sometimes like to work individually too. They like to have a go at doing something on their own before perhaps
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collaborating or comparing with a partner. So, there may be good reasons for doing some tasks like this, and of course, some tasks need to be done individually. It's really not possible to read in a pair or listen in
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a pair in larger classes as well. It's easier to control learners when they're doing things on their own, but this means that teachers may often see this as a default position and not as a pedagogical decision. So, I
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think it's worth really considering why you're getting your learners to work individually and not collaboratively. And a final top tip, number nine, extra one: when you're writing your lesson plan, I think it's really helpful to identify these interaction patterns on it,
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because that way you can check that there's a good variety of interaction and that you've got a generally learner-centered approach to your class with plenty of opportunity for the learners to talk. I hope that these thoughts and tips help.
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Can you remember all nine? See if you can write them down. No, go on, no cheating. It's a great way to remember things, and it's an easy technique to use with learners too. You might want to try that in your class.
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Anyway, thank you for watching, and I'll see you soon. Bye.
Topics:CELTAclassroom managementinteraction patternslanguage teachingELT trainingonline teachingteacher talkcollaborative learninglesson planningJo Gakonga
