Teachers and Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Interaction as a Motivational Factor in EFL Classes.

Abstract

Classroom interaction in a foreign language classroom is considered as an effective way to improve the students’ language proficiency through the common exchange that occurs between studentsand with their teachers especially in EFL classes. Researchers argue that classroom interaction is beneficial in every learning process. This dissertation sets out to explore the importance of classroom interaction as a motivational factor as well as types of interaction that took place in the EFL classes; in addition, it investigates the teachers and students’ perceptions of classroom interaction. A number of questions guide our research (1) what kind of types do teachers mostly tend to use? Then (2) Do teachers and learners have a positive perception about the implementation of interaction in the classroom? Then (3)Does interaction help learners gain knowledge? The hypothesis states that using classroom interaction appropriately will enhance students’ communication and critical thinking skills. The more teachers and students have positive perceptions about the implementation of classroom interaction, the more likely they would develop their knowledge and their relationship. For this aim, a study of EFL students at Mila university center was taken and the questionnaire is administered to 15 teachers and another to 80 students in order to collect data for the current study and confirm the hypotheses. The results show that teachers and students have positive perceptions about the implementation of interaction in the classroom. Although there are many activities applied by teachers in the classroom, learners still have different problems in using and interacting with the target language effectively. This study ended by some suggestions and recommendations that EFL teachers may carry out to encourage classroom interaction.