Chapter 2: Classroom Mapping as a Pedagogical Tool: Gauging Student Participation and Teaching Effectiveness in the College Language Classroom

College language teaching often poses the question of how effectively material is conveyed to students. To understand how students learn second languages, this study implemented classroom–mapping techniques analyzing how spatial proximity to the professor, altering seating arrangements, and different types of group patterns influenced the effectiveness of the classroom environment. The guiding questions fueling this study were: Can we see patterns of student and faculty behavior? How do these improve or hinder student engagement with our learning goals? How does analyzing the classroom environment and the people within it disrupt or reinforce our own understandings and beliefs of the learning experience?