Developing a Framework for Understanding Lecturer-Student Interaction in English-Medium Undergraduate Lectures in Sri Lanka: First Step Towards Dialogic Teaching

Abstract

This study focuses on developing a framework to identify dialogic interaction in English-medium science lectures in a small faculty of a Sri Lankan university. In Sri Lanka, English-medium instruction was introduced with an objective of developing language proficiency of students along with the content delivery. It is asserted that teacher-student interaction in ESL content classes would help develop language proficiency of students. However, generally, lectures in English-medium undergraduate courses in Sri Lanka tend to be monologic, leaving the language development a question. The lecture delivery style, along with other reasons, affects students’ language development in English-medium classes. Although increased dialogic interaction could help change this situation, few studies have examined the occurrence of dialogic interaction in tertiary-level ESL science classes. The main objective of this study is to develop a framework by analysing the lectures given at the faculty in a method that contextually suits the lecture delivery style in the Asian countries. Data were collected from transcribed recordings of 12 hours of lectures, involving four lecturers. The interactional episodes in the lectures were the basis of developing the analytical framework, which refines and extends the MICASE corpus interactivity rating in a contextually-focused way, was especially designed to categorise the lecture discourse along a monologic-interactive/dialogic continuum. This paper also suggests how this framework could be adopted to analyse the lecture deliveries from a practitioner’s point of view. Within the scope of this paper it is explained how this framework was designed focusing attention to interactional episodes. It can be envisaged that the proposed framework can make a concrete contribution to teaching and learning in higher education, mainly to the concept of developing language through dialogic lecture delivery at tertiary level ESL content classes.