A comparison of classroom interaction patterns of native and non-native EFL teachers

Classroom interaction patterns and their significance and contribution to learners' level of proficiency has been one of the most important issues in EFL settings with the increasing concern for socio-cultural theories of education, represented by Lev Vygotsky. It is believed that with the help of the teachers' guidance and scaffolding, learners' participation in language classes might be possible and this collaboration in the EFL classroom might lead to more positive results. The main aim of this study is to compare and contrast the classroom interaction patterns adopted by native and non-native teachers of English in EFL settings such as turn-taking, teacher feedback, teacher echo and different kinds of scaffolding strategies. Qualitative research, particularly conversation analysis was used to identify the basic similarities and differences between these two groups of teachers taking part in a Turkish and American EFL setting. The findings of this study suggest that the common interactional pattern in the classrooms is IRE (Initiate, Response and Evaluation), native speaker teachers of English are more tolerant than non-native speaker teachers of English in terms of error correction and alternative questions technique is the most common scaffolding technique used by both groups of teachers.