Listening to foreign language student teachers: The use of transcripts to study classroom interactions

Abstract

Although many issues about the use of transcripts for studying classroom interactions have been addressed in other studies, little  attention has been given to the use of transcripts to study student teachers’ classroom interactions. To achieve a deeper understanding  of student teachers’ perspectives and permit the formulation of a more appropriate framework, it is crucial to hear from student teachers  and investigate their experiences about the use of transcripts. Therefore, in the study reported on here we used 7 focus-group  interviews of approximately 6 Saudi EFL (English as a foreign language) student teachers in each group to investigate their perceptions  on the use of transcripts for studying their classroom interactions. The data were thematically analysed. Three themes that represented  the participants’ experiences of using transcripts to study their classroom interactions emerged: using the transcript analysis, learning  from the transcript analysis, and committing to using the transcript analysis. The findings reveal that most participants felt they had  autonomy in using transcripts to study their classroom interactions, but experienced some challenges. Most students were determined to  change their classroom interaction based on their analyses of classroom interactions but only a few demonstrated the determination  to continue using the transcript analysis approach.