Lecturers’Efforts in Building Rapport in the English-Medium Instruction(EMI)Context:Focus on the Use of Communication Strategies

Past studies reveal the prevalence of anxiety,coupled with low motivation and disengagement among students in English-medium instruction(EMI)programs.Given the detrimental impact these negative emotions can have on learning outcomes,it is imperative that teachers establish positive emotional rapport with their students.This study explores how experienced and highly rated EMI lecturers at a Chinese university’s overseas campus use communication strategies to build rapport with their students during interactive academic activities.It identifies the strategies used by these lecturers and examines how the strategies facilitate the teaching-learning process.The data,consisting of 10 hours of tutorials and 10 hours of supervisor-student supervision meetings,is analyzed using an adapted Conversation Analysis(CA)approach.The analysis reveals three types of communication strategies(CSs)frequently used by lecturers:back-channeling,codeswitching,and co-creation of messages.By employing these strategies,the lecturers established a strong rapport with the students,which created an encouraging and supportive learning environment.Consequently,this positive atmosphere facilitated students’learning of content knowledge through English.The findings of this study have implications for the training of lecturers who encounter difficulties in establishing rapport with multilingual students in the EMI setting.

浅谈小学低年级语文“互动式教学”

随着素质教育的深入,课堂教学发生了巨大的变化。课堂教学不再是传统的灌输式教育,即教师讲学生要听,学生处于被动的状态。新课程标准确切指出,教学应该以学生为本,学生应该是学习的主人。互动式教学模式是顺应时代发展和小学低年级语文课程标准的新型教学模式。该模式强调教师的带领作用和学生的主动参和,尊重学生的主体地位,达成师—生和生—生的互动,从而实现最后的教学目标,为社会培养人才。

Autonomy in Scaffolding as Learning in Teacher-Student Negotiation of Meaning in a University EFL Classroom

Based upon sociocultural theory, this study investigates the dynamics of the teacher＇s roles and learner autonomy in the process of scaffolding in teacher-student negotiation of meaning in an EFL classroom, The participants were 25 undergraduate students and a Chinese teacher of English at a university in China. The teacher-student dialogue was the central mechanism mediating the construction of negotiation of meaning and form in language learning. The analysis of classroom discourse and the teacher＇s retrospection from an interview illustrated the teacher＇s different roles in interaction, where scaffolding acted as a structured pedagogical tool. The study revealed that the learners were afforded assistance to progress from other- regulation to self-regulation, and consequently, the teacher exploited opportunities to enhance learner autonomy in negotiation of spaces for autonomy in classroom teaching. The study has probed into the significance of the teacher＇s capacity of controlling scaffolding effectively and generated implications for teacher development and learner training.

Scaffolding in Teacher-Student Interaction:A Case Study in Two Oral English Classes in China

This paper reports a case study designed to understand classroom interactional processes in a Chinese university. The case study focuses on scaffolding in teacher-student interaction as well as the process of shifting the responsibility from the teacher to student. Our first aim was to determine how teacher-student interactions in two oral English classes were distributed, and our second aim was to determine how the two teachers perceive their roles in teacher-student interaction and how their perceptive differences were reflected in teacher-student interaction in their oral English classes. The data were collected through videotaping and an interview. Results show that distribution patterns of teacher-student interactions were mainly different in the two oral English classes, and the role perception differences of the two teachers were partly reflected in their teacher-student interaction. The study suggests that the process of shifting the responsibility from teacher to student is a complex process which demands great efforts from teachers as well as willingness from students.