A descriptive study of the interaction behaviors in a language video program and in live elementary language classes using that video program

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to describe: 1) the predominant types of interaction behaviors encountered in a foreign language video program; and 2) the types of teacher-student interaction features that resulted from use of the instructional video in elementary school classrooms. Based on the findings, the second purpose of the study was to examine how these interaction behaviors shaped amount of teacher and student talk in the two sources of data. The researcher examined two sources of data: the language video program and elementary level language classes in two schools in Southeastern United States.

The examination of interaction behaviors involved the description of interaction behaviors between all the players in the video program and those in the classroom scene. F or the description of interaction behaviors in the video program, twenty-five video lessons were analyzed and coded (N=3,269 behaviors) using The Observational System for Instructional Analysis (AOSIA) (Hough & Duncan, 1970). In order to examine features of classroom interaction, twenty-four groups of elementary level language classrooms in grades K through five were videotaped during their twenty-minute language lessons on one occasion each during a four-week period (N=3,223 behaviors). Classroom behaviors were also coded using the OSIA system.