Workshop conducted by Abdellatif Zoubair Lalla Maryam High School Agadir, December 2015

1. IST Workshop
Agadir ELT Inspectorate
December, 2015
Abdellatif Zoubair
Email: abdellatif.zoubair@gmail.com
Web: www. zoubaireltcommunity.ac.ma
www.zoubaireltcommunity.wix.com/eduresources
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

2. Promoting Student Interaction
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

3. ¤Agenda: 1. Define the concept of interaction;
2. Identify the main interaction patterns;
3. State the merits of student interaction;
4. List the potential challenges hindering
student interaction;
5. Discuss ways of promoting student
interaction;
6. Try out some of the ideas suggested;
7. Decide on practical recommendations.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

4. 1. “Interaction refers to the different ways learners and
the teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . in class”
2. “Interaction is the . . . . . . . . . . . . between teachers
and students, as well as among the . . . . . . . . . . . . , in
which active . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . of the
students become vital.”
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015
I. Complete the definitions below with the appropriate
words:

5. II. Explain the interaction patterns below:
1. TTT, STT, TTQ (Harmer, 2007)
2. I-R-F (Nunan 1987)
3. Class-T, Class ‘Mingle, Small groups, Pairs,
Individual work (Scrivener, 2007)
4. T-Ss, S-S, Ss-Ss, Ss-T, S-Ss
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

6. III. Why is student-student interaction desirable?
1. Participation
Most people agree that learning anything involves
participation. Teachers need, therfore to promote
learner interaction in order to help the learners
succeed.
2. Maximising practice time
Learners need to be provided with maximum
opportunities to practise if they are to be successful.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

7. 3. Collaboration
Collaborative learning can foster language
development since learners can see a reason to use
language in order to interact.
4. Socialisation
Interaction does not only promote language
development but it also fosters social skills as well (e.g.
politeness, respect for others) that people need to
operate successfully in any culture.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

8. 5. Motivation
Interaction gives learners the opportunity to use
language successfully and to measure their progress
which in turn should lead to an increase in motivation.
Source: Patrick Howarth, Teacher, Trainer, Portugal
Source: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/increasing-student-
interaction
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

9. IV. List potential challenges hindering student
interaction: (A) teacher talk?
1. When you talk too much then the chances are the
students aren’t being given maximum opportunity to
talk.
2. It’s also likely that you won’t be listening to the
students closely enough, thinking too much about
what you’re going to say next.
3. If you talk ‘for’ the students they will think you don’t
appreciate their efforts and will become demotivated.
4. There is a danger, especially at lower levels, that the
language you use for the explanation is more difficult
to understand than the language being learned.
Source ( Gower,2005)
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

10. 1. Student resistance: It is unfortunately true that some
learners are not enthusiastic about pair and group work.
2. Self-consciousness: Many learners become very
nervous and embarrassed when asked to speak English.
3. Large classes:The more learners there are in a class,
the more difficult developing interaction can be since
there are more people to monitor and, therefore, more
chances of problems.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015
IV. List potential challenges hindering student
interaction: ( B)

11. 4. Mixed abilities: Managing interaction is more
difficult in classes that have a wide variety of levels
than in small classes of a homogenous level.
5. Lack of motivation: If learners have no need to
interact or don't want to, they probably won't.
6. Insufficient language: Many students feel they don't
have the language they need to interact and, therefore,
to complete the task successfully.
Source / Patrick Howarth, Teacher, Trainer, Portugal
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

12. V. ( A) Suggest alternative ways that can help
promote student interaction:
1.Teaching process language :This refers to the
language that students need to interact. We can
introduce that before starting tasks and leave useful
phrases on the board so learners can refer to them
while speaking. They can also copy them into their
record books as well.
2.Pre-teaching task language:Try to predict what
language is critical to task achievement and pre-teach
it.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

13. 3.Providing support: Try to provide ideas too. These
can be brainstormed before the task and put on the
board so that learners have plenty of things to talk
about.
4.Giving preparation time : Quite often interaction
breaks down because learners haven't had time to
think about what they want to say and how to say it.
5.Providing a supportive atmosphere: Give enough
praise and feedback on task achievement as well as
language use.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

14. 6.Varying the interaction and repeating tasks: Move
students around so that they are not always talking to
the same partner. You may ask students to perform the
same task a number of times but each time with a
different partner.
7.Having different levels of task: Prepare an easy,
medium, and difficult version of the same task so
students of different levels can interact together at a
level appropriate to their language level.
8.Providing a reason to interact: Provide the learners
with a reason to speak and listen. Information gap
activities are a good example of these.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

15. • Encourage a friendly, relaxed learning environment.
• Ask questions rather than giving explanations.
• Allow time for students to listen, think, process their answer
and speak.
• Really listen to what they say. Let what they say really affect
what you do next. Work on listening to the person and the
meaning, as well as to the language and the mistakes.
• Allow thinking time without talking over it. Allow silence.
• Increase opportunities for STT (Student Talking Time).
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015
V. (B) Maximising student interaction in
class :

16. • Use gestures and facial expressions to replace unnecessary
teacher talk.
• Allow students to finish their own sentences.
• Make use of pairs and small groups to maximise
opportunities for students to speak.
• If possible, arrange seating so that students can all see each
other and talk to each other (ie circles, squares and horse
• Remember that you don’t always need to be at the front of
the class. Try out seating arrangements that allow the
whole class to be the focus (e. g. you take one seat in a
circle).
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

17. • If a student is speaking too quietly for you to hear, walk
further away, rather than closer to them!
• Encourage interaction between students rather than
only between student and you, and you and student.
Get students to ask questions, give explanations, etc to
each other, rather than always to you.
• Keep a diagram like the one in Figure 3.3 in your head
as a possible alternative to the one in Figure 3.2. Think
‘How can I get students speaking and listening to each
other as well as to me.
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

18. IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015
Source (Scrivener, J. 2007)

19. IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015

20. VI. Micro-teaching: refer to the latest
lesson you taught and present an activity
using some of the ideas above:
Refer to the video links :
 Video n° 1 Fatima Zahra Outtaleb
https://youtu.be/YCesvgRLSng
 Video n° 2 Bouchaib Lbriki
https://youtu.be/L84YOjO8CTU
 Video n° 3 Kamal El Chaoui El Ghor
https://youtu.be/cd21JCjM8Kw
 Video n° 4 Samira Oulkadi
https://youtu.be/cRB9DnGDjZQ
IST workshop, Promoting Interaction, Dec. 2015

21. VII. Time for reflection: how will today’s
workshop impact my teaching practices starting
tomorrow?
refer to the video link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0K6ACa3Pco
.
.
.
.
IST workshop, Promoting Interaction, Dec. 2015

22. REFERENCES:
 Gower, R. et al. 2005. Teaching Practice. Macmillan.
 Harmer, J. 2007. How to Teach English. Pearson
Longman.
 Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of English
LanguageTeaching. Pearson Longman Fourth Edition.
 Nunan, D. 1987. Communicative Language Teaching:
Making it Work, in ELT Journal, 41/2: 136-145.
 Richards, Jack C. & Scmidt, R. 2010. Dictionary of
Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics.
Longman.
 Scrivener, J. 2007. Learning Teaching. Longman.
IST workshop, Promoting Interaction, Dec. 2015

23. Agadir ELT Inspectorate
Academic year
2015-2016
IST workshop, Promoting Student Interaction, Dec. 2015