Social Interaction

Here is a copy of the handout that I'll be going over today for our work with Chapter 6.

Chapter 6: Learning Take Place in Social Interaction

The key questions/activities that will help us understand this concept:

1. “Learning English is all about deciding to join the English-speaking club.” Explain what this mean and defend the statement.

p. 148-149


2. What theories from second language acquisition can you use to persuade teachers that group work really DOES lead to better language learning and is not just a messy waste of time? Put together a very persuasive speech.

p. 151-154


3. Technology has often led to LESS interation in language classrooms. Why? How can we ‘fix’ this? Create some activities that demonstrate how technology can be used to lead to more interaction.

p. 149-151


4. How could you know if a classroom you were observing REALLY contained social interaction? Create a list of factors that we can look for when we visit classes.

p. 154-156


5. Choose two of the many activities that will lead to social interaction that you can most see yourself using as a teacher in Chile. Describe how these activities work and why they appeal to you.

p. 156-168


6. What is the relationship between problem solving and social interaction? Create an original activity that you could carry out with students in your own future classroom. Describe the activity.

p. 168-173