Collaborative Instruction in an ESL Speaking Classroom

Collaborative Instruction in an ESL Speaking Classroom

In an ESL classroom, in order to promote students' communicative competence, there should be a lot of interaction among class members. Yet, despite the urgent need of many communicative classrooms, such classrooms are not many. This case study looked at a highly communicative ESL class and explored in what ways the teacher provided collaborative instruction. For the study, I observed one teacher's speaking class at an English language institute in the U.S. for one semester. I collected the data through classroom observations (non-participant), fieldnotes, interviews, and class artifacts. Classroom observations and fieldnotes were later transcribed and analyzed. The findings illustrated that the teacher promoted students' communicative interaction by treating the students as knowledge sources, constructing the instructions together, and at the same time, working as a facilitator, and practicing reflective and higher-order instruction. In order to provide collaborative instruction, the teacher prepared short- and long-term lesson plans, monitored students' work vigorously during class activities, and used strategic discourses. The implication of this study is classroom teachers novice and inexperienced ones - can learn how to practice collaborative instruction by becoming reflective of their instructional practice and having their performance assisted by their colleagues and teacher-educators. In so doing, it is hoped that the detailed description of this case study can serve as a guide for collaborative instruction.