Review

English Language Teaching; Vol. 12, No. 12; 2019 ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

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Teacher-Student Interaction in EFL Classroom in China: Communication Accommodation Theory Perspective

Zheng Weizheng1,2 1 Foreign Language School, Yichun University, Yichun, 336000, Jiangxi Province, China 2 Graduate School, Saint Paul University Philippines, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, Philippines Correspondence: Zheng Weizheng, Foreign Language School, Yichun University, Yichun, 336000, Jiangxi Province, China; Graduate School, Saint Paul University Philippines, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, Philippines. Received: August 5, 2019 Accepted: November 15, 2019 Online Published: November 18, 2019 doi: 10.5539/elt.v12n12p99 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n12p99 Abstract Foreign language teaching highlights the cultivation of the learners’ communicative competence, because the main purpose of learning a foreign language is to use the target language to communicate. However, many students in higher institutions in China cannot speak English fluently after having learned English for more than ten years, although they have mastered abundant knowledge of grammars and enough vocabulary, which mainly results from lack of interaction in classroom teaching besides the natural language environment. Classroom interaction is the key to effective teaching in EFL classroom. So, using strategies to promote the interaction in class is necessary. This paper explores the interaction between teacher and student in EFL classroom from the perspective of Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). Data was collected from 540 minute video samples of three English teachers’ classroom teaching. This study aimed: 1) To identify whether the teachers use communication accommodation strategies to develop the interaction，when they are faced with the difficulties in EFL class; 2)To answer which strategies are often used in EFL classroom? Findings showed: 1) Communication accommodation strategies happened in Teacher-student interaction; 2) Communication accommodation strategies such as approximation, interpret ability, emotional expression and interpersonal control are the basic strategies which were employed by the three participants in each session of EFL class; 3) Interpret ability and strategy of discourse management such as face-maintenance, turn-taking, topic control, asking referential questions, conversational repair and feedback occurred frequently according to the discourse. 4) The more accommodation strategies the teacher used, the better the interaction in the classroom was. Keywords: communication accommodation, EFL classroom, teacher-student interaction 1. Introduction English, as a foreign language in China, has been seriously taken in education since China’s Economic Reform and Opening-up began in 1978 (Dong, 2003; Wen, 2019). However, in recent years, English education has been questioned by people in social circles because it is time-consuming but poorly-efficient (Dai, 2019; Cai, 2014). In China, most of the students can read and write in English, but they can’t speak English fluently, which mainly results from lack of natural English environment as well as too limited practice after class. Hence, classroom teaching plays an important role in foreign language learning. However, the process of the formal instruction in EFL classroom in higher institutions is not satisfying. Because teachers in the high schools tend to emphasize on grammatical structure, reading and writing, in order to prepare their students for the national entrance examination, instead of providing the students with chances to practice oral English in class. After six years of formal English education, students are used to keeping calm, listening to the teacher from the beginning to the end, rather than speaking English or interacting with the teacher and other students in class. So, it’s very difficult for teachers in higher institutions to active students’ participation in EFL class. Researches in language teaching manifests that interaction between teachers and students is significant in EFL classroom (Long, 1983; Swain, 2005; Ellis, 2008). Rational interaction in classroom influences language input, output, learning atmosphere, students’ feedback and participation in learning activities which promote the effectiveness of language learning and competence development. In recent decade years, various researches have explored different methods and strategies to promote the interaction in EFL classroom, while very few researches focused on what happens in EFL classroom and what is the interaction like in EFL classroom.

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This research aims to explore teacher-student real interaction in EFL classroom from the perspective of Communication Accommodation Theory, specifically explain how teacher applies the communication accommodation strategies to accommodate the students during the interaction in order to avoid communication breakdown in EFL class. 2. Interaction in EFL Classroom According to Ellis (2008), learners can advance their language skills by acquisition and learning. So, Like any other language learning process, a foreign language can be acquired in proper language learning both in natural setting or formal environment. Language acquisition researchers have claimed linguistic environment, linguistic input, linguistic output are the major factors influencing language learner’s competency and performance (Leslie & Howard, 1984; Swain, 2005; Ellis, 2008). Mackey (1999) argues that it is very important for teachers to build interactive learning environment in language class which promotes meaning negotiation and generation in the target language. So, interaction is a key to language teaching in class. Ellis (1990) defined interaction as the communication involved in exchanges of real communication as well as those occurring during the process of formal drilling. Ninio & Snow (1996) advanced that only when the learners participated actively in language communication in class can they successfully learn or acquire the language. Jin, Singh and Li (2005) suggested teachers’ main task in class is to create a learning environment and organize classroom activities which are designed to promote learners’ active interaction focused on information negotiation and sharing. Rivers (1987) asserted that to boost effective interaction in classroom, teachers should attach importance to two-way interaction basing on learners’ cooperation, and encourage learners to join the communication activities in class. Classroom interaction is also one of the significant elements in communicative language teaching, which highlights the switch of the teachers’ role from a knowledge transmitter to a language learning facilitator. According to Communicative Language Teaching theory, learners’ deficiency in their language competence results from the teaching strategy itself (Widdowson, 1972). Littlewood (2014) proposed that teachers should change their roles in language learning class. Teachers must implement various teaching strategies to promote students’ free interaction to enhance the required communicative competences including grammatical competence, sociolinguistics competence, discourse competence and strategic competence (Canale & Swain, 1980). 3. Theoretical Framework and Relevant Studies 3.1 Theories on Communication Accommodation Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), a theory of interpersonal communication, derived from Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT), which was first coined by Giles in 1973. According to Giles, interlocutors unconsciously or consciously adjust their verbal and non-verbal behaviors to accommodate each others in order to achieve the following three key goals: 1) To evoke their social approval; 2) To promote the effectiveness of communication; 3) To sustain positive social identity (Beebe & Giles, 1984; Giles et al., 1991). CAT focuses on the fundamental strategies of convergence and divergence between individuals’ communication (Giles et al., 1991; Giles, 2007). “Convergence” is a strategy which is used by individuals to adapt their verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviors， so as to show the similarity to their interlocutors or to gain approval or appreciation from their listeners or develop the conversation (Giles, 2007). Convergence occurs across a wide domain from verbal behaviors (e.g. adjusting pronunciation, use of words and sentences, speech rate, pause, explanation, repetition, praise and even language switching) to non-verbal behaviors (e.g. smiling, gestures and other activities promoting the effectiveness of communication) (Coupland, 1980). “Divergence” is a strategy which is used by participants to highlight verbal or non-verbal distinction between themselves and their interlocutors, based on Social Identity Theory (Tajfel's, 1978 ), CAT conserves that individuals shows different social identity by using different language limited to pronunciation, lexical differences, dialect and other non-verbal behaviors. 3.2 Researches on Communication Accommodation Since CAT appeared, has been extended more deeply and widely, and it serves as a cross-disciplinary conception, which occurs in various interaction (Özlem, 2015). For instance, Pamela Rogerson-Revell (2010) explored the role of speech accommodation by analysis the discourse of international business meetings, which illustrated native and non-native English participants used some of the normalization and convergence strategies throughout the meetings to promote communication. Wan Irham (2015) investigated speech accommodation strategies in the Selling of Life insurance. Analysis of the

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conversations from sales meetings showed bilingual sellers and prospective buyers of life insurance used various accommodation strategies to ensure or decline a sale. In media interaction, Buzzanell, et al’s research (1996) on telephone answering Machine messages showed that individuals especially callers unconsciously and occasionally applied converge in mediated communication. Bunz, Uila and Scott (2004) focused his study on individuals’ accommodation to politeness in electronic email, findings showed recipients tended to be more polite in answering messages including polite verbal marks or structural clues. Elena-Madalina (2010) focused on the main forms of pre-supposing social identity which depend on some labels and attributions in virtual or online communities. Analysis of the data online demonstrated that convergence could be seen when individuals showed respect to different identities and views. In family interaction, communication accommodation behaviors influence people’s daily life. For example, Mahanita (2013) investigated the accommodation strategies between a multiracial daughter and her mono racial mother. Findings showed that the daughter developed the family relationship by using approximation, interpretability, discourse management and positive interpersonal control strategies. Rebecca and Giles (2013) probed the role of communication accommodation between step-parents and step-children, analysis of a online survey of 133 step-children showed that the degree of accommodation between step-parents and step-children correlated positively with the conversation satisfaction, relational closeness and family identity, even with the step-family satisfaction. CAT was also employed to investigate communication between law enforcement officers and ordinary citizens. For example, Christopher et al. (2008) explored the role of communication accommodation in police-civilian interactions in China and America, and found there was obviously positive correlation between police officer communication accommodation and civilian trust in police and the compliance with police requests. Howard Giles et al. (2012) focused on the video recordings of 69 traffic stops involving white officers and white (non-Latino) or Latino drivers. Analysis revealed that officers accommodated white drivers or drivers with less accent more than Latinos or those with heavy accent, that officers accommodated less and even non-accommodated more during extensive policing, and that officers were more accommodated those who were more accommodative. In heath care area, CAT is also used to investigate the interaction between nurse and patient, pharmacist and patient, doctor and patient. For example, Watson and Gallois (1998) investigated the communication between nurses and patients. Study showed health professionals employ more discourse management and emotional expression to accommodate patients in interpersonal interactions. David, Bernadette and Gallois (2015) focused his study on interpretability by inspecting doctors’ under-accommodation in their medical records. Results showed patients’ lacking of understanding resulted from doctors’ under-accommodation. Erwin et al. (2015) explored accommodation strategies in pharmacist-patient interaction and found accommodation strategies such as interpretability, discourse management, approximation and interpersonal control were manipulated by both pharmacists and patients. Since Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) emerged in the 1970s, researchers have applied it to explore interaction in various fields (business, heath care, media communication, family interaction, law enforcement) by various ways (face-to-face interactions, telephone, internet and other media) in various discourse (bi-linguistic multi-linguistic and mono-linguistic). However, very few of the prior work focusing on language teaching and learning. Among the few of the prior work, Manju (2015) focused on effectiveness of communication accommodation in English teaching and found teachers used convergence strategies such as adjusting the discourse to obtain learners’ approval or develop effective interaction. Results also showed teachers used divergence strategies to maintain a positive social identification. Yi-Rung and Wenli (2015) explored teachers’ utilization of accommodation strategies in EFL classroom and the influencing factors. Data analysis showed there were six accommodation strategies: introducing, defining, listing, eliciting, illustrating and emphasizing which are affected by the difficulty level of input materials, student feedback and language proficiency of both teacher and students. Chin-Hui (2019) explored interaction between teacher and old students in senior education in Taiwan focusing on speech accommodation strategies. Results showed when communicating with older adults, Taiwanese teachers tended to implement the following four strategies: secondary baby talk, avoiding the topic of death or illness, politeness and code-switching. According to the previous researches, Five strategies can be employed to boost effective interaction including approximation, interpretability, discourse management, emotional expression and interpersonal control (McEwen & Coupland, 2000; Gallois, Ogay, & Giles, 2005). Approximation happens when speakers adjust their speech

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patterns (e.g., pitch, tone and rate) to match the interlocutor. In EFL classroom, teachers are likely to adjust their speech patterns to ensure better understanding and information exchange. Interpretability is applied by speaker to alter the words and expressions to make himself/herself understand easily. In EFL classroom, teachers can use high-frequency words and expressions or simple sentences to make sure that the learners can understand the information, or to lower learners’ anxiety as well as to avoid learners’ frustration due to misunderstanding. Discourse management is the strategy used by interlocutors to verify the message signals encoded, transmitted and received in order to achieve their goals such as expression of solidarity, face-maintenance and meaning negotiation (Sherri, 1996). Such strategy contains repetition, praise, turn-taking, topic control, asking referential questions, conversational repair (or self repair), back-channeling, feedback, delay (or extending waiting time), turn-taking and using non-verbal signals. In EFL classroom, teachers’ role is to make him/her understood and make learners actively participate in the activities in classroom. In order to achieve these goals, they have to employ different strategies of discourse management to develop the conversation. Emotional expression probably happens in EFL classroom when teachers regulate their own emotions and display emotional expressions such as appreciation, warmth, happiness, pro-sociality and other positive emotional expressions in order to promote relationship between teachers and learners, learners’ cognitive competence, positive two-way interactions and peer collaborations (Pamela, 2010). Interpersonal control strategies focuses on equality between speaker and listener. In EFL classroom, equality relationship between students and teachers help make learners more relaxed pleasure ground into classroom learning and participate the teaching activities actively. 4. The Current Study This study is one part of investigation into interaction in EFL class in a university in Central China. Before the current study, a questionnaire based on Likert Scale (1932) was completed by English teachers and non-English specialized students, focusing the teacher’ perception of their students’ English learning effectiveness as well as the student’s perception at their English teacher’s teaching effectiveness. When it came to interaction in class, result showed 28.89% teachers were very satisfied, while 24.44% students were very satisfied with it, which made the researcher curious about “how is the real interaction in EFL classroom?” “Do the communication accommodation strategies used by the teachers help promote the interaction in EFL class?” This study was based on an observation and discourse analysis. It aimed to: 1) Identify whether the teachers use communication accommodation strategies to develop the interaction when they are faced with the difficulties in EFL class. 2) How do the teachers use communication accommodation strategies in the interaction? 3) Which strategies are often used in EFL classroom? 5. Method 5.1 Participants The participants were three English teachers in a university in Central China. All of the three teachers are from College English Teaching Department and have worked for at least ten years, their ages are respectively thirty-three, thirty-five and thirty-six, who are referred to as Teacher A, B and C in the following analysis. Their students are non-English specialized freshmen in their second semester from three classes, in which there are fifty to fifty-five students. 5.2 Data collection With the three teachers’ permission, a series of videos involving 540 minutes’ EFL classroom teaching cut from the Automatic Recording and Broadcasting Classroom were content analyzed, which provides naturally-occurring data from a highly common interaction for teachers and students. There are altogether eight topics in the second semester, with three sessions in each topic including topic discussion, text analysis and exercises. In this study, videos of different topics are chosen to be analyzed. 5.3 Data analysis The video samples were transcribed, coded, categorized and analyzed qualitatively based on Jefferson’s (1984) transcription notation for discourse analysis and Gallois, Ogay and Giles’s (2005) categorization of communication accommodation strategies including approximation, interpretability, discourse management, emotional expression and interpersonal control. Coding approach applied are showed in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 manifests the notations adapted in transcription. Table 2 is a summary of the participants, duration of the teaching, the session and the topic. In the analysis, “S” means one student, “AS” means all of the students, “SS” means some of the students.

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Table 1. Transcription notations adapted from Jefferson (1984) Symbol Meaning Example ? Rising intonation TA: Yes, whether Benjamin can enjoy himself, and ?

::: Extension of a utterance TA: It looks like a :::

--- Length of the pause or silence TA: A bottle. What’s kind of bottle? Does it look like a regular bottle?

Underline Emphasis of the speech TA: Yes, there are a lot of darks and...They are waiting in a line.

[ text ] Correction or Note S: It shows westerners --are, --puncture [punctual] Uh Hesitation or silence S: Uh --- ... Omission of transcription TA: Chinese culture, yes,very good... Table 2. A Summary of the participants in the videos Participant Duration Session Teaching context Topic

Teacher A(TA) 90 mins Session 1(S1) Topic discussion

Ways of Learning 90 mins Session 2(S2) Text analysis

Teacher B(TB) 90 mins Session 1(S1) Topic discussion

Virtual Life 90 mins Session 2(S2) Text analysis

Teacher C(TC) 90 mins Session 1(S1) Topic discussion Values 90 mins Session 2(S2) Text analysis

6. Results and Discussion Analysis of this study builds on six transcripts from three participants’ lectures involving six sessions. During the 540 minutes’ lectures, no divergence is found, which can be interpreted that in order to promote communicative efficiency in EFL class, teachers try to create an atmosphere of harmony and equality. The following six excerpts show convergent linguistic strategies used by teachers. Excerpt 1(TA, S1) TA: But before we start our class, I’d like to get some pictures on the screen. There are two pictures on the screen, what can you see? What can you see in the blue picture? SS: A bottle. TA: A bottle. What kind of bottle? Does it look like a regular bottle? AS: --- TA: It looks like a::: S: Coco-cola bottle. TA: Yes, it looks like a Coco-cola bottle. what about the one right, in red? SS: Teapot. TA: Yes, teapot. So, I want to say if these two regular bottles [ill-chosen word], these two containers represent the culture, so the one on the left, Coco-cola bottle, what culture does it represent? AS: --- TA: Something American, something western, that’s western culture, right? What about the one on the right? SS: Chinese culture. TA: Chinese culture. Yes,very good... According to Özlem (2015), in all kinds of interaction, accommodation happens more or less. Excerpt 1 is from the session of topic discussion focused on difference between China and western culture, Teacher A used a picture with a Coco-cola bottle on the left and teapot on the right. In this excerpt, discourse management strategy

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was applied by Teacher A. Specifically, when the teacher asked “What kind of bottle? Does it look like a regular bottle?” All the students were in silent, thinking. Teacher A responded swiftly and said “ It looks like a:::”, to delay, to extend the waiting time, which gave the students more time to think and made it easier for them to think out the noun phrase “Coco-cola bottle”. In the sentence “...if these two regular bottles, these two containers represent the culture...what culture does it represent?” As soon as Teacher A uttered the word “bottles”, she recognized whether “coco-cola bottle” or “Teapot” belongs to a container, so, she used the method of conversation repair (self repair), corrected and used “containers” quickly. When Teacher A asked “what culture does it represent?” All the students kept silent again, Teacher A then used a referential question to control the topic by saying “Something American, something western, that’s western culture, right? What about the one on the right?” Because of her hint, the students can answer the question immediately. In this conversation, Teacher A used “yes”, “very good” and repetition of the right answer to give her students feedback. According to Giles (2005), discourse management is the strategy used by interlocutors to verify the message signals encoded, transmitted and received in order to develop the conversation. Such strategy contains repetition, praise, topic control, asking referential questions, conversational repair (or self repair), feedback, delay (or extending waiting time) and so on. In this excerpt, in order to make himself/herself understood and make learners actively participate in the interaction in classroom, Teacher A employed different strategies of discourse management to develop the conversation. Excerpt 2 (TA, S2) TA: In the key-slot incident, what matter to the author? S: what matter to the author? TA: Yes, it means what is important for the author? S: Whether Benjamin is happy. TA: Yes, whether Benjamin can enjoy himself, and ? S: Uh --- T: What’s the theme of this text? S: Creativity? Whether Benjamin is create [grammatical error]? TA: Create or explore ? S: Yes, explore. Whether he is explore, is exploring. TA: Good, thank you. Whether he is exploring. It’s important to the author Whether Benjamin can get much pleasure from his action and the sounds the key made and whether he can explore. This excerpt is from the session of text analysis which is about the author’s view on learning and teaching difference between China and the Western countries, based on an anecdote in which a 18-month-old baby tried to insert the key into the slot. In this excerpt, the strategy of interpretability was applied by the teacher. After Teacher A asked the question “In the key-slot incident, what matter to the author?”. The student seemed unaware of the meaning of “matter”, the teacher altered the high-frequency expressions “what is important for the author?” to make the student understand easily, Meanwhile, in this excerpt, the strategy of discourse management was used. In order to guide the student to get the complete question, Teacher A gave him a hint by the method of asking the referential question “What’s the theme of this text?” So that the student could connect his answer with “creativity”. Then, Teacher A utilized the method of negotiation and asked “Create or explore?”, the student realized the word “explore” was proper. In this excerpt, feedback such as “yes” “good” and competition of the students’ right answers can be seen. McEwen and Coupland (2000) claim that interpretability is applied by speaker to alter the words and expressions to make himself/herself understand easily. In this EFL class, the teacher used high-frequency words and expressions or simple sentences to make sure that the learners can understand the information, or to lower learners’ anxiety as well as to avoid learners’ frustration due to misunderstanding of the information. Meanwhile, Teacher A is good at using the strategy of discourse management such as using referential question, negotiation, and using compliment to give feedback. So, the interaction between Teacher A and her students is successful. Excerpt 3 (TB S1) TB: OK. Now, I’d like some students to tell me what can you do in the virtual world. S: Shopping online --

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TB: Anything else? S: -- Chatting with friends, uh--, surf in the internet [“surf” should be “surfing” ]. TB: Surfing the internet. Now, would you please tell me your partner’s answers? S: -- uh --, She say [ said]-- TB: Yes, she said ::: S: She said she could listen to the music, watch the movies and learn English online. TB: Yes, Now, please look at the pictures. Internet has changed our daily life. For example, we can shop online instead of ::: S: Going to the shopping mall. TB:Yes, instead of going to the shopping mall. It has changed our shopping style. Then, next picture, what are they doing? SS: They are studying online. S: They are teaching. S: They are having class. TB: Yes, what kind of style has the internet changed? SS: Learning style. SS: Teaching style. TB: Good, internet has changed our teaching and learning styles. Excerpt 3 is from the session of topic discussion on virtual world. Two pictures are provided in order to demonstrate the current life style that has changed by internet. In this excerpt, discourse management strategies such as extending waiting time, asking referential question, conversation repair, topic control and feedback were employed. For instance, when the student uttered “ --Chatting with friends, uh--, surf in the internet.” and “ -- uh --, She say--”, it is obvious that the student have made grammatical errors in both of the sentences. Because “surf ” should be “surfing”, and “say” should be “said”, Teacher B modified them by uttering the right answer. Here, the strategy of feedback as well as face-maintenance were used. Teacher B began the discussion of the second picture by saying “...Then, next picture, what are they doing?” After the students gave the answer, in order to control the topic, Teacher B asked“Yes, what kind of style has the internet changed?” Also, in this conversation, Teacher B extended the waiting time by uttering“Yes, she said :::” and “...we can shop online instead of :::”, to provide the students with more time to think. Meanwhile, in the sentence “.... Internet has changed our daily life. For example, we can shop online instead of :::”, Teacher B used the strategy of interpretability by giving an example in order to make the students better understand how Internet has changed our daily life. According to Giles (2005), discourse management results in successful communication and minimizing the social distance between speaker and receiver. In this class, the employment of the discourse management strategies can be seen. In this excerpt, Teacher B obviously knew this and combined different discourse management strategies to minimize the distance between her students and herself, to create a relaxing learning environment, to reduce anxiety of speaking English, so that the student’s confidence was not be defeated. Teacher B’s accommodation is the basis of successful communication in his interaction with his students. Excerpt 4 (TB, S2) TB: ... According to the text, the author tried to do some activities in order to turn back to her original world, that is, the real world. For example, call ::: SS: Call people TB: Yes, call people. And then arrange to::: SS: Meet friends. TB: Yes, meet friends. Then go to, get to ::: SS: The gym. ... TB: ... But after she returned to the real world, what’s her feeling about it?

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S: It’s un:::, unbear, unbear for her to, listen to people’s laughing when, when I meet with my friend. [Sentence with grammatical error] TB: Good. You’d like to say when the author saw a friend and her laughter is unbearable or intolerable. Right? S: Yes. This conversation is excerpted from the session of text explanation. It is a task in which students were required to fill in the blank with some verb phrases representing the activities the author tried to do after staying in the virtual world for long time. In this excerpt, discourse management strategies such as extending waiting time, conversation repair, feedback and negotiation can be easily seen. For instance, feedback was utilized by repeating the students’ right answers. At the end of the conversation, the student made many grammatical errors in the answer, but it seemed that he knew the main idea of the answer, so, Teacher B uttered the right sentence of the same idea to give the feedback as well as meaning negotiation and face-maintenance. In the utterances “Yes, meet friends. Then go to, get to :::” We can find the teacher has used conversation repair to change “go” into “get”. According to Ellis (2008), comprehensible input is the basis of language acquisition, teacher’s utterances are one of the main input resources. So, in EFL class, teachers use conversation repair or self-repair as a result of monitoring, which is connected with proficiency level. Meanwhile, the strategy of extending the waiting time was also used in the following utterances “... And then arrange to:::” and “... Then go to, get to :::”. The extension of a utterance followed by “manage to” and “get to” can be regarded as a strategy by which Teacher B gave the students time to think as well as a chance to have a try, or we can regard it as a strategy by which Teacher B invited one or more students to answer the question together with her. And at the beginning of this conversation, Teacher B said “turn back to her original world, that is, the real world...”, after she uttered the word “original”, she thought, maybe the students would be confused about it, so she used the high-frequency word “real” to explain further, in which, the strategy of interpretability was employed. In instructional process, especially in language class, such strategy is very common. Excerpt 5 (TC, S1) T: If you won $5000000, would you please tell us how you’d like to use it? S: First, I will donate most [of the ]money to [the] charity foundation. T: Yes, donate money to the charity foundation, that’s first, good. S: I’d like to set up a kindergarten for [the] poor. T: Set up a kindergarten for the poor, great! S: Buy a house for my parents. T: Buy a house for your parents, good daughter. S: Buy a sport car. T: Sport car, a beautiful and expensive car, right? S: Yes, and travel with my roommate. T: travel with your roommates. Thank you very much. and--, Who else? S: If I have so much money，first, I [will]make sure whether it is true. T: OK, sure, it’s true.Yes? S: Yes::: Then I tell my parents about the good news. T: Tell your parents. Also, share your happiness with your parents. Your parents will feel very happy. OK, go on. S: And give them a part of the money to let them to go on a vocation. T: Give money to them to travel around the world, yes? S: yes, next--, I want to use a part of the money to decorate my dormitory. T: Ah, I want to be your roommate, decorate the dormitory. S: And, give a part of money to my friend to travel together. T: Yes, to travel together with friends. S: At last, I would donate some money to the charity.

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T: kind-hearted girl, also charity foundation. S: And then I would [will] find a financial adviser to help me manager the rest of the money. T: Oh, you will have some money left, you should ask the manager for help. S: Yes. Excerpt 5 is the interaction during the session of topic discussion on values. In this excerpt, Teacher C is good at using turn-taking strategy to alternate turns in the discourse management. Because of students’ inappropriate pronunciation, Teacher C gave students the feedback by repeating the right answers as well as praises on occasion. Farzadnia and Giles (2015) claimed that interpretability and discourse management are the broadest and most central communication strategies by which interlocutors achieve their conversational needs. Even in this excerpt, these strategies that Teacher C used were much fewer than Teacher A and Teacher B, we can still easily find strategy of discourse management such as turn-taking and feedback. According to Ellis (2008), student’s emotion is one of the main factors which influence language acquisition. Students need respect and recognition from their teacher during learning process. In this excerpt, Teacher use the strategy of praises to encourage the students, to establish the good relationship with the students, to create a good learning atmosphere. All these are good for promoting the interaction between the students and the teacher. Excerpt 6 (TC, S2) T: Now, we are going to learn Part Two, from 3 to 12. They are the details to support whether the author is poor or not. Now, please answer the question, what does the author have? S: He [has a]1999 car, wear and tear, but useful. T: Yes, a 1999 car. The author has an old car. Anything else? S: And she, and he [his] apartment [is ]modest. T: Yes, she has a modest apartment. A: And he [his] clothes are suitable for [his] worker [work]. T: anything else? S: --- T: Good, just now, she told us something the author have, the author has. Anything else? Who can tell me? SS: A black-and-white TV. T: Yes, good. An old black-and-white TV other people gave him, a modest apartment, a 1999 car, outdoors clothes, and very low income. But, what makes the author feel he is rich inside? SS: Good heath. T: Yes, good health. it makes him vigorous and spirited. Any more? SS: The gift of creativity. T: Yes, the gift of creativity in his writing. S: Talking with writer friends T: Yes, enjoying friendship. Any more? AS:--- T: Please look at Paragraph 12. A sense of belonging... Excerpt 6 is from the session of text analysis on values. In this excerpt, students were required to answer two questions, giving the evidence to support that the author was materially poor but spiritually rich. In this conversation, turn-taking strategy was still used. Because of students’ inappropriate pronunciation and low voice, Teacher C repeated the right answers and made a summary to give students the feedback. After summarizing the answer for the first question, Teacher C used topic control strategy to shifted the topic into “what makes the author feel he is rich inside?” by using the strategy of topic control. Turn-taking is a basic strategy in interaction between interlocutors (Ibraheem, 2017). There is no exception in EFL classroom, turn-taking strategy happens in all of the excerpts above. Meanwhile, in order to keep the students’ face, Teacher C didn’t correct the students’ inappropriate pronunciation, instead, she repeated the right answers. This action is good for establishing students’ confidence and developing the interaction in EFL classroom. As for topic control strategy, this is also a basis strategy for a teacher to make his/her class in order, to develop his/her teaching process.

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7. Conclusion Teaching is accommodation. According to these 540 minutes’ videos, communication accommodation strategies including approximation, interpretability, discourse management, emotional expression and interpersonal control occurred in the teacher-student interaction in EFL class, which can be explained that in order to create an equality and harmony atmosphere and encourage the students to involve in the teaching activities, English teachers try to adjust themselves to boost effective interaction. Among these strategies, approximation, emotional expression, interpersonal control and interpretability are the basic strategies which were manipulated by the three participants and happened in each teaching session. The strategy of discourse management such as explanation, face-maintenance, turn-taking, topic control, asking referential questions, conversational repair and feedback occurred frequently in EFL interaction. Meanwhile, during the study on interaction in EFL classroom, the researcher found teachers still spent most of time in presentation, only leaving a small part of the time for interaction. Some of the teachers have difficulty in developing the conversation or involving the students in teaching activities in EFL class. So, it is worthwhile for English teachers or English teaching manager to study how to promote communication or interaction in EFL class. Furthermore, if necessary, as a professional development project, English teachers should be trained on how to use various strategies to facilitate effective interaction in class. In summary, this research explored real interaction in EFL classroom from the perspective of Communication Accommodation Theory, it shows how the teachers applies the communication accommodation strategies to adjust their students during the interaction in EFL class. It provides the teachers with strategies to promote interaction in classroom, and the researchers with real cases for their further researches. Especially provides the teachers and researchers new angles to examine interaction or communication between teacher and student in EFL class. Acknowledgement I choose to dedicate my research to my supervisor, Dr. Connie Doyugan for encouraging me to do this research, and thank her for the direction. I also dedicate my research to my classmate Bojuan Chen and Kangsheng Lai for having reviewed this article. References Beebe, L. M., & Giles, H. (1984). Speech-accommodation theories: A discussion in terms of second-language

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