Direct Influence Of English Teachers In The Teaching Learning Process

Abstract

Teachers play a vital role in the classroom environment. Interaction between teacher and students is an essential part of the teaching/learning process. An educator, Flanders originally developed an instrument called Flanders Interaction Analysis (FIA). The FIA system was designed to categorize the types, quantity of verbal interaction and direct and indirect influences of the teachers in the classroom; finally, the information is plotted on a matrix to be analyzed and interpreted. This system consists of ten categories, namely, accepting feelings, praising or encouraging, using student ideas, asking questions, lecturing, giving directions, criticizing or justifying student responses, student-initiated discussion, and silence/confusion. FIA became a widely used coding system to analyze and improve teacher-student interaction patterns. Few studies have been carried out regarding classroom interaction in Pakistan on this vital aspect of the teaching-learning process. The objectives of the study are to explore the direct influence of the teachers in the college level teaching-learning process in the subject of English: to know about positive and negative reinforcement in the class and to analyze the student participation level in the classes at the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan (using the FIA system). This study was significant because its findings and conclusions may stimulate English teachers to improve their teaching behaviour in order to maximize student learning. Fifty college level classrooms were randomly selected as a sample of this study. Fifty observations were carried out, each in one classroom, using Flanders Interaction Analysis system to secure the data. To do this, time sampling was used and each classroom was observed for 810 seconds (13.50 minutes) of a 45-minutes class. After obtaining and encoding the data, it was tabulated, analyzed and interpreted by using simple method. 1. The ratio between indirect influence and direct influence: The sum of column 1, 2, 3, 4, divided by the sum of columns 5, 6, 7 gives the ratio. 2. The ratio between positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement: The sum of column 1, 2, 3 is to be divided be the sum of 6, 7. 3. Student participation ratio: The sum of column 8, 9 is to be divided by total sum. The results showed the direct influence of the teacher at college level in the subject of English. The study revealed that the student’s participation level was very low in the teaching-learning process. The majority of the teachers were direct in their behavior. The ratio showed that the teachers were more direct in their teaching.