Social Interactions : the influence of these dynamics in the ELT classroom.

Abstract

Language teaching and research should not be relegated to linguistic and formal aspects alone. Rather, broader social issues could be integrated into language teaching. From this premise and guided by a critical lens, social interactions are understood not only as communicative exchanges but as complex processes in which students negotiate their identities and participation within the classroom. This perspective interprets social interactions as practices shaped by historical, sociocultural, and institutional power relations that influence how learners engage and position themselves in the English classroom. Likewise, these interactions can reveal hierarchies or power relations in contexts where a second language is learned. Therefore, positive or negative interactions are not fixed categories but experiences that emerge according to the context and are collectively constructed through students’ relationships. In line with this, this paper reports a study aimed at analyzing social interactions in the English classroom among a group of 11th-grade female students at a public school in Bogotá. The study involved the design and implementation of collaborative tasks to mitigate negative social interactions and strengthen positive ones. Data were gathered through field journals, classroom observations, a questionnaire, an interview and artifacts to trace how these tasks reshaped peer relations. Among the findings, the study provides concrete evidence of how the pedagogical proposal promoted friendlier social interactions and increased students’ willingness to use English in class.