Analysing Lecturer-Student Interaction in EMI Undergraduate Lectures: A Sri Lankan Perspective

Abstract

Interaction, especially dialogic interaction in EMI classes, is considered important for understanding the content and developing the language. Although the importance of dialogic interaction is well realized, the studies that focused on interaction in tertiary level EMI classes are rare in Sri Lanka, while they are limited in number in Asia. Moreover, there is no mechanism to identify the lecture delivery in terms of interactivity in EMI classrooms that contextually focuses on Asian EMI classes where most of the lecture deliveries are presumed to be monologic. Hence, 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, just like other countries where English is used as a second language, English-medium instruction was introduced with an objective of developing language proficiency of students through the content delivery. It is asserted that the lecture delivery style, along with other reasons, affects students’ language development in English-medium classes.  This study develops a framework by analysing the lectures given at the faculty in a method that contextually suits the lecture delivery style in 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. This 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 study 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 study, it is explained how this framework was designed focusing attention on 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.