Investigating High School Students' Interaction in Online EFL Classroom

drs.h.abdul madjid latief, mm.m.pd; siti zulaiha, ph.d.; herri mulyono, ph.d.;

Communicating and interacting in an online learning environment is challenging. The learning process must be based on the principle of optimal interaction between students and teachers, students themself, and students with various learning resources, including the environment. A total of 75 Senior High School students was surveyed to identify their interaction in online EFL classroom. Semi-structures interviews with 10 randomly selected students were also conducted, and analysed using thematic analysis. The study identified there are three interaction preference such as the interaction between students-content, students-teacher, and interactions between students-students. The results show that male participants were considered to have difficulty interacting with the teacher. The results of in-depth interviews also support this. It is found that male participants were considered to have difficulty interacting with the teacher. It is also showed that the type of online interaction of students does not show differences between schools (public school and private school). This indicates that the three types of online interactions do not show differences between schools.