Group 4 : Rizka Aulia F. U.

(20180810136)
Adela Muzdalifah (20180810106)
Alfarhan Nadyasta M. (20180810110)
Setya Novanta W. (20180810122)
Rendi Setiadi (20180810129)

Interactional Modifications
Introduction
Language is an important thing because without language, we cannot
communicate with others. In second language teaching and learning process, teachers
have an important role to lead a success in focusing students understanding in the
classroom. Not only understanding the language itself, but also students have to know
how language is implemented in social context. In the social context, interaction
modification is the important part in acquiring the target language, so the teachers have
to modify their teaching method to make sure that the target language is easy to
understand for the students. In this paper, we are going to discuss about interactional
modifications by teacher in the classroom. We choose this topic because we want to know
how teachers modify interaction in the classroom.

The teacher who we observed was one of the lecturer from English Language
Education at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta named Mrs. X. She comes from
Yogyakarta. She graduated from Universitas Ahmad Dahlan in 2008 for undergraduate
degree and Sanata Dharma for her master degree in 2015. She is the lecturer in PBI UMY
since 2014. She can speak three languages such as Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia, and
English for sure. We choose Mrs. X because she uses English more often than Bahasa
Indonesia and Javanese in the classroom so that interactional modifications can be applied
if the teacher uses English more often to her students.

In this paper, the class that we observed was speaking and listening for formal
setting with the number of students who attended the class as many as 31 students. The
topic that discussed in the class was giving and asking opinion on meeting 10. During the
class, many students actively answered and responded to the teacher, especially female
students, but male students were a bit passive.
The object of this observation is the students in English Language Education
Department batch 2019 class E. We choose the freshman because they were in beginning
level of L2 learners with various educational background especially in English, so it is
obvious that interactional modifications are necessary for students. Through this research,
we will know whether the teacher implement interactional modifications or not because
teacher who teaches about second language acquisition must apply modifications to
students, especially for L2 learners at the beginning level, so the students do not feel
difficulties and burdened when learning a second language.
 In this observation, we have several criteria for teacher which if the teacher does
these criteria it means that this teacher has modified interaction in the class. For
interactional modifications, there are 7 criteria for interactional modifications such as
repetition, paraphrase, expansion and elaboration, sentence completion, frame for
substitution, vertical construction, comprehension check and request for clarification.
Those criteria are taken from the book Introduction Second Language Acquisition by
Muriel Saville-Troike (2006) page 109 for interactional modifications.

The observation was done on Saturday, 23 November 2019 at 1 p.m. with a

duration of approximately 3 hours without having a break. All members of the group
attended in this observation. The technic of the observation is first we make a table list of
the criteria that has explained before then the table list are printed on paper. Each of us
holds 1 paper to make it easy to do note taking and we also record with video and voice
recorder for about 3 hours. After that, when teacher does one of the criteria, we will check
the list in the table and write down the description if necessary and so on until the class
is over.

Observation Report
After 3 hours of the classroom observation, the results of the observation are first
the teacher did repetition when she interacted with the students in the classroom. She did
repetition for five times. She repeated her sentences on several occasions. She did
repetition when the students didn’t hear what the teacher said or when the students didn’t
understand what the teacher had explained.
Second, the teacher did paraphrase when she interacted with the students in the
classroom. She did the paraphrase twice. She did the paraphrase when the students have
difficulty translating the words spoken by the teacher. The function of the paraphrase is
to simplify the words that the students don’t understand so the words are more easily
conveyed.

Next, the teacher did expansion and elaboration when she interacted with the
students in the classroom. She did it three times. Expansion is when the teacher completes
the student’s sentences that are incomplete. Elaboration is when the teacher gives an
addition of extra material or illustration or clarifying details. The teacher did expansion
and elaboration when students answer the teacher's question with incomplete and very
short sentences so the teacher must complete the student's sentence correctly.

Fourth, the teacher did sentence completion when she interacted with the students
in the classroom. She did it once times. Sentence completion is when the teacher helps
students when students have difficulty when they want to say something. The function of
sentence completion is to complete sentences when students have difficulty to deliver
something.
 Next result, there is no frame for substitution when the teacher interacted with the
students in the classroom. All students in the class that we observed already understand
how to answer the question correctly even though the sentence is not perfect. Example
when the teachers asked “How are you?” the students answer “I’m fine” instead of “I’m
fine are you”. Based on the example, all students already know the pattern for answering
the question.

Sixth, there is vertical construction when the teacher interacted with the students
in the class. She did it once time. Vertical construction is when the teacher builds student
understanding by continuing to provoke students to keep talking so that what the teacher
is targeting can be achieved.
Last, the teacher always check the student’s comprehension and she always give
clarification based on the student’s request like when the students didn’t know the
meaning of some words then the students will ask to the teacher then the teacher will
clarify it. She answer the student’s request clarification for four times.

Here are the summary and the conversations of teacher doing interactional
modifications in the classroom:

Interactional
Frequency Example
Modifications
1. Teacher : “Now, we will make a small
group. Please mention your last digit
student number!”
Student : “What?”
Teacher : “Please mention your last
digit student number!”
2. Teacher : “What is opinion?”
Student : “Opinion is about
someone’s ideas.”
Teacher : “Yes, opinion is about
someone though.”
Repetition 5
3. Teacher : “1 2 3 your eyes on me!”
Students : “Hah?”
Teacher : “1 2 3 your eyes on me!”
4. Teacher : “I will give you one topic.
An easy topic.”
Students : “What?”
Teacher : “I will give you an easy
topic.”
5. Teacher : “I will give you five to ten
minutes to discuss.”
Student : “Apa apa Ms ulangi?”
 Teacher : “I will give you five to ten
minutes to discuss.”
1. Teacher : “What is opinion?”
Student : “Opinion is about
someone’s ideas.”
Teacher : “Yes, opinion is about
someone though.”
Paraphrase 2 2. Teacher : “When we share our ideas,
we have to convincing other people.”
Student : “Convincing?”
Teacher : “Convincing is when you
try to make other people trust about
what you say.”
1. Teacher : “When you share your
though, you have to give?”
Student : “Fact.”
Teacher : “Yes, we have to give fact
Expansion and
3 to support our opinion.”
elaboration
2. Student : “Everyone has their own
views.”
Teacher : “Yes true, everyone has
their own views about something.”
1. Students : “I think when we share
opinion we have to give… what…
Sentence completion 1 hmm…”
Teacher : “Fact.”
Student : “Yes we have to give fact.”
Frame of substitution - -
1. Teacher : “What we have to do?”
Students : “Discuss.”
Teacher : “What we have to discuss?”
Students : “Online course.”
Teacher : “What’s wrong with online
Vertical construction 1 course?”
Students : “Agree or disagree.”
Teacher : “Yes, we will discuss about
online course. The girls are disagree
with online course and the boys are
disagree.”
Comprehension check 1. Student : “Ms what is bertukar
and request for 4 pikiran in English?”
clarification Teacher : “Share thought.”
 2. Student : “Ms what is menghasilkan
uang in English?”
Teacher : “Making money.”
3. Student : “What is kenakalan
remaja in English?”
Teacher : “Juvenile delinquency.”
4. Teacher : “Mention one example of
fact in giving opinion!”
Student : “Data”
Teacher : “Yes good.”

In conclusion, the type of interactional modification that most commonly used by

the teacher is "Repetition". The teacher did repetition for 5 times. The function of
repetition is to repeat some words that the students are confused about. After doing that,
students become more understanding of what the teacher said. However, the type of
interactional modification that the teacher did not do in the classroom is “Frame of
Substitution”. The interactional modification by the teacher is very helpful for both the
teacher and students so that communication between the teacher and students is easier.

Discussion and Conclusion

Based on the classroom observation, the teacher did interactional modifications to
the students such as repetition, paraphrase, expansion and elaboration, sentence
completion, vertical construction, comprehension check and request for clarification.
Based on the result of the classroom observation, the teacher did 6 out of 7 components,
it means that the interactional modifications are 85% used in the teaching and learning
process by the teacher. Therefore, modifications method that the teacher did in the class
is in line with the theory by Muriel Saville-Troike (2006) which stated that the teacher
should do the interactional modifications to the students so that the learning becomes
interactive. Murile Savile-Troike said that interactional modifications that should be done
by the teacher divided into 7 components such as repetition, paraphrase, expansion and
elaboration, sentence completion, vertical construction, frame of substitution,
comprehension check and request for clarification.
The first component is repetition. Repetition used by the teacher in the classroom
is in line with the theory by Murile Saville-Troike which stated that repetition by the
teacher gives the students more time to process the words so that the students can get
correct perception. The second component is paraphrase. Paraphrase used by the teacher
in the classroom is in line with theory by Murile Saville-Troike which stated that
paraphrase gives more exposure about new words so the vocabularies that the students
get will be more increase. The third component is expansion and elaboration. Expansion
and elaboration used by the teacher in the classroom is in line with theory by Murile
Saville-Troike which stated that expansion and elaboration can make the students produce
words so that it will increase the students speaking ability. The fourth component is
sentence completion. Completion used by the teacher in the classroom is in line with
theory by Murile Saville-Troike which stated that sentence completion can help the
students to speak completely which the teacher who continues the sentence. The fifth
component is vertical construction. Construction used by the teacher in the classroom is
in line with theory by Murile Saville-Troike which stated that vertical consruction allows
the students to construct their utterance with the questions that teacher provided. The sixth
component that teacher did was comprehension check and request for clarification.
Comprehension check and request for clarification used by the teacher in the classroom
is in line with theory by Murile Saville-Troike which stated that comprehension check
and request for clarification allows the students and the teacher to clarify the unclear
words and sentence so that there is no ambiguity and miscommunication.
Based on the theory and the result of classroom observation proved that
interactional modifications is important to succeed a second language learning process
because if there is no modifications, the students will get difficulties to carry out the
learning process. The recommendation for the teacher who teach a second language
especially English is they should apply those components of interactional modifications
to the students during teaching and learning process in the classroom.
References

Saville-Troike , M. R. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.