English language students need to speak out! English teachers everywhere struggle to increase the quantity and the quality of English spoken by students in their classrooms. In global contexts where English is not commonly spoken in everyday life, students may only have your classroom to practice speaking. This module will help you explore different activities to promote meaningful interaction in a classroom. You will learn new strategies to create an interactive and communicative classroom that includes promoting more student-to-student interaction.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

• describe the importance of student-to-student interaction in a language classroom

• examine and use a variety of effective activities that promote meaningful interaction in a classroom

• share different communicative activities that are effective for English learners

Click here to download the Module 5 Packet.

Additional Resources

Scaffolding Part Two: Supporting Language Production

Source: U.S. Department of State, American English. (n.d.). Scaffolding part two: Supporting language production. https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/september_teachers_corner_week_4_final_1_0.pdf

"The Movable Class” by Kevin McCaughey

Source: McCaughey, K. (n.d.). Keep it moving: Ideas for fun, active classroom activities. [Power Point Slides]. American English. https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/1.4_presentation_slides_-_final_version_for_website_0.pdf

Explore more web resources for increasing classroom interactions in your English classrooms. You can also search these websites for more teaching resources:

• American English Resources page

• Open Educational Resources Commons

• British Council Teaching Secondary Resources page

(Hint: Try using these keywords in the American English site search box - student interaction, group work, communication. Type the keywords in the “Search Our Resources” space located in the middle of the web page. Explore the other sites using a similar approach.)

Have you ever developed any useful activities (or strategies) of your own to give your students practice in spoken English? If yes, write some thoughts down in your journal about one activity (or strategy), and explain why it has been effective and useful in promoting interaction among your students.

Consider the following questions as you think about your interaction activity (or strategy):

• What stage of the lesson have you used this activity (or strategy)and why?

• How has this activity (or strategy) promoted meaningful communication?

• What visual aids did you use, if any, to make your activity (or strategy) more interesting and meaningful?

Create an activity (or strategy) that will generate communicative interactions among students. The purpose is to share one idea and receive many others that you can use in the classroom. This is an opportunity to learn new teaching ideas from each other and improve your practice. Use the template below when creating your activity.

Activity Name:

Activity Description:

• This activity is effective because…

• Here are some steps to help you use this activity in your classroom:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Note: This will be added to your Portfolio.

Share the activity (or strategy) you created in the group chat. Be sure you post an activity that you have not seen already in the group chat. Please post a brief message and attach a Word document, PDF, or PPT slides with your activity. You may use the following message as a template.

Example

Hello, Colleagues! The activity I want to share to increase classroom interaction is called _____________________________________________________________ (activity title). This activity is effective because_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________. See the three simple steps in the attached file for an example on how I use this activity in my classroom to increase interaction. (Be sure to attach your activity file.)

After you share an activity in the group chat, read through your colleagues' activities. Find at least one or two new activities in the group chat that you can use in your next class. Apply a new activity from this module in your next class. If it was a success, be sure to send a message and tell your colleague "Thank you!" and why it was effective.

Write 1-2 paragraphs to reflect on Module 5 (300-500 words). You may use what you have created, shared, and applied in the previous tasks.

Note: This will be added to your Portfolio.