Investigating the Impact of Teachers’ Interaction Strategies on Enhancing EFL Students’ Contributions at King Abdulaziz University: A Classroom Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This qualitatively designed study investigated the interaction strategies employed by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to enhance students’ contributions during classroom interaction, as well as exploring the impact of these strategies on Saudi EFL students’ verbal discourse in English Language Institute (ELI) at King Abdulaziz University. Nine teachers, along with their respective students participated in this study recording a ten-hour video and audio recordings representing the study’s primary data. All recorded (video and audio) data was transcribed and an Interaction Analysis (IA) approach was adopted for analyzing teachers’ and students’ classroom discourse. The findings indicated that EFL teachers attempted to enhance students’ contributions in various ways, and that the strategies used by teachers had varying impact on students’ classroom discourse. In addition, findings suggested that students’ verbal discourse could be developed with a relatively higher degree of teachers’ extended strategies and use of backchannels. Pedagogical implications, recommendations, and suggestions for further research were presented at the end of this study.