Content Introduction Chapter The Role of Translation and Mother Tongue in flt

Teacher-students Interaction
When the teacher explains a new subject or checks an activity for all the students, a unilateral ommunication between teacher and studentsistaking place. Nevertheless, if he asks them with the objective of getting a response and they answer at the same time, a bilateral communication is taking place. Nunan, supported by the data given by twenty-six teachers,
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concluded that the most frequent kinds of interaction among students and teachers were:
1. The teacher opposite the students (40% to 100%)

2. Small group working (12'5% to 24 %)

3. Individual working (11% to 28'6%)

4. Pair working (0%-17'8%)

The teacher's predominant action area in the classroom coversthose students who sit near to him, while those less successful and less motivated are usually in a background position or near the classroom exit door (Blázquez, 1994). In other studies, it has been showed that students who are located within the action area participate and relate more with the teacher.
Moreover, if we consider the studies that prove the relationship among those two factors and the learning results (Ellis, 1980: Swain, 1985;Strong, 1983;Peck, 1985), we will understand how important it becomes to foster participation among all the students, and not only among those who are situated in the maximum action area. However, we will have to bear in mind that lower level students do not decide where to sit by themselves, as the teacher is responsible for their distribution within the classroom, trying to get the best development in the learning process. In the case of English language teachers, things get worse in
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compulsory levels, where the tutor usually locates students according to their behaviour and performance, thus trying to prevent the formation of groups that would hinder the course of the lesson. Consequently, it becomes necessary to resort to different groupings apart from having the students sat in individual rows.