Abstract
Interaction in a classroom dose not consist only of learners' responses to teachers questions but also of utterances that learners make on their own initiative. In this paper such utterances are referred to as "self-initiated utterances" and analyzed on the basis of experience gathered at a teaching practice in a beginner-level class. The emphasis is put on examining the types of self-initiated utterances, teacher's response to them and the influence of such utterances on further developments in the class. The result shows that learners make self-initiated utterances mostly when there is something they don't understand. Teachers' reaction included affirmative markers during the learner's utterance, positive remarks after such an utterance and inclusion of the topic into further discussion, which increased learners' motivation and made them use this device more often.
