English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION 291such as one might expect to occur dur<strong>in</strong>g grammar lessons, remember them, and afterwardslist them on the charts which would be distributed at the end of the record<strong>in</strong>g.To <strong>in</strong>vestigate the learn<strong>in</strong>g opportunities fully, I exhaustively collected all classroomtextual materials <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g all visual and audio aids. I also took notes of what went on theblackboard to help account later for the claims of uptaken items.InterviewTo provide the study with corroborative data, it was felt necessary to <strong>in</strong>terview the subjectstwice over the six-week period: once <strong>in</strong> the middle and once at the end of the data gather<strong>in</strong>g.The idea was to give the researcher a further chance to probe the <strong>in</strong>formants about thepossible reasons which made them claim the particular items they reported on their uptakecharts. The <strong>in</strong>terview was also believed to allow learners to express other ideas they feltwere miss<strong>in</strong>g from their uptake charts. As the number of learners was rather small, allthirteen could be <strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> about one hour, the same day, after the third lessonrecord<strong>in</strong>g. The subjects were <strong>in</strong>dividually asked to answer the researcher’s queries while theother learners were outside the room, wait<strong>in</strong>g for their turn to be <strong>in</strong>terviewed.The <strong>in</strong>terview, conducted <strong>in</strong> French or <strong>in</strong> Arabic accord<strong>in</strong>g to the learners’ wishes, wasan adaptive structured <strong>in</strong>terview where respondents were free to give details on the fiveissues which were followed up with all learners dur<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>terview session. The issuescould be summarised as follows:12345Clarifications (if necessary) of self-reported data on the charts distributed at the endof every observed lesson.Rationale for claim<strong>in</strong>g those specific items on today’s uptake chart or, if possible, onthe uptake charts distributed at the end of the two previous observed lessons.Possibilities for the learners to extend their perceptions of those items.Reactions to the benef<strong>its</strong> or otherwise of complet<strong>in</strong>g the charts at the end of everytaped grammar lesson.Feel<strong>in</strong>gs about the researcher’s presence and the tape-recorder <strong>in</strong> the back of theclassroom dur<strong>in</strong>g the lesson.The second question, about the reasons for claim<strong>in</strong>g certa<strong>in</strong> items <strong>in</strong>stead of others,was found to be most problematic to the respondents as some rema<strong>in</strong>ed evasive whle othersproduced overgeneralised statements as to what made them claim those items. They wereunable to tell the researcher the reasons which made any particular item outstand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>their m<strong>in</strong>ds.The fact that many of them reacted as if the question was irrelevant or irrationaldiscouraged the researcher from <strong>in</strong>terview<strong>in</strong>g a second time as this question was the focusof the <strong>in</strong>terview.The respondents produced responses that were <strong>in</strong>sufficiently precise to be <strong>in</strong>terpreted<strong>in</strong> relation to what might account for their claims. Because I was observ<strong>in</strong>g the same groupfor the period of six weeks I could have tra<strong>in</strong>ed the <strong>in</strong>formants by ask<strong>in</strong>g perhaps moredetailed and specific questions about what most attracted their attention <strong>in</strong> classroomdiscourse. However, as I had never even conducted an <strong>in</strong>terview before, I was afraid to putwords <strong>in</strong> the learners’ mouths. Moreover, be<strong>in</strong>g miles away from any professional consultant,I did not dare meddle with the procedure and run the risk of underm<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the data gather<strong>in</strong>g.The <strong>in</strong>terview had to be given with<strong>in</strong> the six observational weeks as the learners’ responseshad to relate to these precisely observed events.