INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

When people exchange messages with others, they interact among themselves. Brown (2001) writes interaction as collaborative exchange of thoughts and feelings or ideas between two or more people, leading to a reciprocal impact on each other. Burnett and Marshall (2003) define interactivity as a term to describe interaction between parties where both sources and receivers of information through a communication medium. It is a sequence of action and reaction. They further indicate that interactivity describes the extent to which messages are related to each other.

Interactional view of the nature of language sees language as a tool for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social transactions between individuals (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). It is through interaction, students can use the language learnt in real-life exchanges as they send and receive messages in a casual manner. Thus, Brown (2001) argues that language classrooms should be interactive. One way to increase interactivity is to increase the audience of written works done by students. Perhaps, by giving access to others to read students’ written works and react on them, interactivity will increase. Thus, an environment conducive to language learning is provided.