A Case Study on Effective Interaction in the ELT Classroom with the SETT Framework

The ultimate goal of English Language teaching is to help learners attain effective interaction skills. It is necessary to observe and explore classroom interaction systematically and closely in order to reach this ultimate goal. Hence, this qualitative case study focuses on the differences between pre-service teachers (PSTs ) and in-service teachers (INTs), particularly regarding how they managed and shaped interaction in the classroom via the Self Evaluation of Teacher Talk (SETT) framework (Walsh, 2006). The data for the study was collected from the transcriptions of the video recordings of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) 9th graders in a private high school setting in Türkiye. A total of 200 minutes of lesson time was transcribed for the INTs and 240 minutes of lesson time was transcribed for the PSTs. The Transana 2.10 version was utilized for the transcriptions (Woods, 2006). A micro-analytic perspective was adopted for the transcriptions of recordings and two coders coded the transcripts using the SETT framework. Frequencies and percentages of the categories in the framework were compared and it was observed that while INTs used all classroom modes with varying frequencies, PSTs tended to use specific modes more frequently than others. The differences were observed to affect the resulting interactional patterns in the classroom. The study elaborates on these differences and their impact on the training of pre-service teachers.