Factors underlying the classroom interactive patterns

Item 8 in Questionnaire for teachers dealt with external factors which may shape the classroom interactive patterns. These factors were carefully designed and based on the author’s informal discussion with the teachers and students to elicit the teachers’ views on the external factors which most influence their classroom interaction. The distribution of the frequencies of each factor is illustrated in Figure 2.

As shown in Figure 4.2 below, factors such as class size, teaching time, and pressure of assessment rank the top three positions, much more frequently occurred than factors of teaching device, textbook and classroom atmosphere. It seems that class size, teaching time, and pressure of teaching assessment are most likely to constrain the way the subjects choose to interact with their students.

Figure 2 - Frequency distribution of external factors most influencing the subjects’ classroom interaction

Large class teaching is a common practice in Maritime English course in the two schools. The large classes comprised two natural classes with the number of student ranging from 60 to 80. It is recognized that large size of class inevitably impairs the interaction between the teacher and the individual student (Ur 1996). Information obtained from informal discussion with the teacher subjects shows that the other two factors, pressure of assessment and teaching time, are actually interrelated. The pressure of assessment stems from the National Competency Test for officers on ocean-going ships. All students majoring navigation or engineering are required to take the test, and students’ achievements in the test have potentially become one of the criteria for the appraisal of teachers’ work. Teachers are under pressure to teach “exam English”. In China, when students are given a test in English, it is often their ability to memorize words and grammar rules rather than their ability to communicate that is tested. There is no exception of the Competency Test. Some teacher subjects complained about the insufficiency of teaching time and there were so much vocabulary and rules required by the test. They were pushed to provide as much knowledge as possible in the class time for their students to memorize. Oral communications based on real sea life are irrelevant to the test, thus being neglected more or less by either teachers or students. Although teachers tend to ask questions to promote class participation, not a few teachers admitted that they usually initiated questions to the whole class rather than to the individual student for the sake of saving time. Obviously, the test- oriented teaching and learning dramatically impair the motivation to communicate in the class on the part of either teacher or student. This may explain the dominance of lecturing pattern in Maritime

classroom atmosphere teaching time text book pressure of assessment teaching device class size 12.5 10.0 7.5 5.0 2.5 0.0 Frequency

English classrooms as identified in the current study. Just as the saying goes, the examination is the piper that calls the tune. Perhaps the tide will turn only when English testing has changed its focus.

4. Conclusion

Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of data from teachers’ and students’ questionnaires, the study has revealed a predominance of teacher-class interactive pattern, in which teacher initiates questions to the whole class, students give responses and then teacher provides feedback, with little student initiation or voluntary participation. The interaction between teacher and individual student is strikingly limited in large classes. In addition, students’ peer interaction seldom takes place.

Since teaching and learning is considered to be an interactive process, or as Barnes (1976, cited from Johnson 1995/2001:12) claims, a give-and-take between teachers’ and students’ shared understandings, then the interaction patterns in the classroom will be shaped by the interrelationship between participants’ (both teachers’ and students’) perceptions of classroom interaction and external factors – the pedagogical contexts and sociocultural contexts. In the present study, evidence from non-participant classroom observation, informal discussion and unstructured interviews with the teachers and students suggests that it is associated with some external factors including large class size, pressure of examination system and assessment system. Under the pressure of the national competency exam for deck officers and engineers, which lays greater emphasis on reading than on speaking, many teachers are pushed to teach “exam English”, and many students view passing the exam as the ultimate goal for English learning. This is one of the main reasons for the unsatisfactory classroom interaction, which partially leads to the “dumb English” problem in Maritime English learners. The solution to this problem depends on a new evaluation system for both students’ proficiency level and teachers’ teaching effectiveness.

Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the classroom teaching and learning process, the factors underlying the various behaviors that take place in classroom are in no way clear cut. Further study is needed to probe into factors which shape the classroom interaction so as to provide deeper insights into the Maritime English teaching.

References

1. Ellis, R. 1990. Instructed second language acquisition: learning in the classroom. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.

2. Johnson, K. E. 1995/2001. Understanding Communication in Second Language Classroom. Beijing: People Education Press.

3. Long, M. H. & Sato, C. J. 1983. Classroom foreigner talk discourse: forms and functions of teachers’ questions. In Seliger and Long (eds.). Classroom oriented research in second language acquisition. Rowley: Mass Newburry House. pp268-285.

4. Rivers, W. M. 1997/2000. Interactive Language Teaching. Beijing: People Education Press

5. Ur, P. (1996/2000) A course in language teaching: practice and theory. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Author’s Bio-Note

Xue-qing You, lecturer in maritime English, Guangzhou Maritime College, China Email: [email protected]

Tel: 13342816298

Address: 101 Hongshan San Road, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, China，510725 Education

2007: M.A. in Foreign Language School, Sun Yat-sen University

1992: B.A. in English Department, Shanghai Maritime College (Now Shanghai Maritime University) Teaching Career

2004/01-present: lecturer in maritime English, Marine Engineering Department, Guangzhou Maritime College 1992/08-2003/12: lecturer in maritime English, Training Centre of Guangzhou Maritime Transport Company

Yoko Uchida, Naoyuki Takagi Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology Japan