Assessing Learning Opportunities in EFL Classroom Interaction: What Can Conversation Analysis Tell Us?

The present paper seeks to assess the opportunities for learner involvement and negotiation of meaning that teachers provide in the unfolding interaction in an EFL setting. Classroom data from a Chilean EFL setting were collected in order to assess how teachers deploy a number of interactional features when managing contingent learner turns. The analysis of the interaction was carried out under a conversational analysis framework, which is suited to illuminate local classroom discourse. Analysis of the interaction showed that a number of interactional features were found to influence the quality and amount of negotiation of meaning and learner involvement. The data also suggest that instances for negotiation of meaning can be nurtured and prompted by the teacher, and that their absence can be explained to some extent by a misuse of the interactional features that teachers have at their disposal. It is suggested that teachers should be more aware of the local, dynamic and context-sensitive aspects of their interaction with learners in order to make moment-by-moment decisions that will likely increase negotiation of meaning and opportunities for learning.