VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU HÀ A STUDY ON TEACHER TALK IN EFL CLASSROOMS AT BACKAN EDUCATION COLLEGE Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ trong lớp dạy Tiếng Anh của giáo viên Trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Bắc Kạn. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI – 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU HÀ A STUDY ON TEACHER TALK IN EFL CLASSROOMS AT BACKAN EDUCATION COLLEGE Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng ngôn ngữ trong lớp dạy Tiếng Anh của giáo viên Trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Bắc Kạn. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH, M. HA NOI - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………….…ii Table of contents …………………………………………………………….iii Lists of abbreviations …………………………………………………………………….vi Lists of tables and figures ………………………………………….
Aims of the Study ……………. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………. Structure of the thesis……………. The role of teacher talk in foreign language teaching………………………………….
Teacher Talk as a Tool of Classroom Management………………………………. Teacher Talk as a Source of Target Language Input…………………………. Teacher Talk from the Second Language Acquisition Perspective……………. Strategies for Teachers’ Use of Target Language in the Classroom…………….
Previous researches on teacher talk……………………………………………. Experimental Studies on Teacher Talk………………………………………………. Qualitative Studies on Teacher Talk…………………………………………….14 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The teacher talking time……………………………………………………….
Functions of teacher talk………………………………………………. Checking the students’ understanding………………………………………. Respond to a learner’s response…………………………………………….30 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. DISCUSSION AND SOME PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS……….
Amount of teacher talk……………………………………………………………. Functions of teacher talk. Some pedagogical implications……………………………………………………. Shifting the teacher- centered classroom into student-centered classroom……….
Controlling Teacher Talking Time and focus on the quality of teacher talk……. Using suitable language…………………………………………………………….I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: First language L2: Second language SLA: Second Language Acquisition I: Initiating R: Response F: Feedback ESL : English as a second language. EFL: English Foreign Language M.A: Master in English B.A: Bachelor in Art TTT: Teacher Talking time STT: Student Talking time TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Participants Profile Table 2: Teacher talking time per lesson (in minutes) Table 3: Number of moves regarding the functions of teacher talk Table 4: Functions of teacher talk Table 5: Functions of teacher talk TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Teacher talk in the language classroom is one of the questions in which second language methodologists and applied linguists have shown a great interest for several years.
As various language teaching methods have come and gone ( Howatt with Widdowson, 2004; Richards & Rodgers, 2001), perspectives on teacher talk has changed accordingly ( Brown, 2001; Gass, 2003; Doughty, 2004). For example, advocates of the Communicative Approach claim that teachers need reduce their talking time in the classroom in order for their students to have more time speaking the foreign language. Furthermore, the issue raised is not quantitative between teaching and learning, who should say more than whom in the classroom, but the important thing is whether the quality and purpose of talk are useful to gain the effect in the classroom. This study focuses on analyzing the role of teacher talk used in the classroom according to functions of teacher talk.
The concept of “teacher talk” used in this research is talk performed by teachers in the foreign language classroom. The term is defined in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics as the “variety of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to communicate with learners, teachers often simplify their speech, giving it many of the characteristics of foreigner talk in other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners” ( Richards, 1992: 471). Although the above definition is helpful, it does not tell much about the functions of teacher talk.
I think, teacher talk is a type of input source, which is really important in input-poor learning environment like the one in Bac Kan province where the present study was conducted. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, I define teacher talk as the quantity and the quality of the target language teachers use in the classroom for the sake of classroom management. AIMS OF THE STUDY. The purpose of this research study is to investigate how teachers talk in foreign language classrooms and the rationale behind their talk in the classroom.
Furthermore, this study aims to explore teachers‟ perceptions of their talk in the classroom. Although teacher talk involves many aspects, this research just focused on three aspects, that is: the frequency of teacher talk in the classroom in comparison with student talk, the frequency of teacher talk in English in comparison with their talk in Vietnamese, and the way teachers talk in the classroom. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. In order to achieve the above aims, the study is set out to seek answers to the following research questions: 1.
How often do teachers talk in the classroom as compared with the students? 2. Which language do teacher use more often in the classroom: English or Vietnamese? 3. Why do teachers talk the way they do in the classroom? 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
The study was limited to the investigation of a small number of college teachers regarding the way they use language as a pedagogical tool so that understanding of the teachers‟ perspectives on the role of teacher talk could be gained. Specifically, the study was confined to the understanding of the amount of teacher talk in the classroom in comparison with that of the students, the preferred use of L1 or L2, and teachers‟ perception of the functions of their talk in the classroom. Since the study was conducted on a very small number of classroom teachers of English (3 teachers) in a college of education located in a mountainous area, no generalization of the findings was intended. However, the findings can be valuable to attempts to understand teacher talk as a pedagogical tool in similar educational contexts.
As the purpose of this study is to investigate the use of teacher‟s language in the foreign language classrooms at Bac Kan Education College. This study is a case study research with two research instruments were employed for data collection. These are (a) classroom observation, and (b) post-observation interviews with teachers and students. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS This study consists of three parts, excluding the references.
Part one, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims, the research questions, and the scope of the study, the methods, and the design of the study. Part two, Development, is the heart of the study and includes three chapters: Chapter one presents the literature review relevant to the study including theoretical background of teacher talk. Chapter 2 describes in details the research method used in the study with the necessary components before supplying information about the procedures of collecting the data. Then, the statistical results and the analysis of the collected data are shown.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 Chapter 3 discusses the findings from statistical analysis and some pedagogical implications. The last part is the conclusion of the study as well as some suggestions for implications achieved from the discussion in the thesis and for further studies. SUMMARY This chapter presents an overview of the study including the rationale, the purposes, the research questions, the scope of the study, as well as the structure of the thesis. In addition, the research instruments which include classroom observation and interviews were also presented.
In the next chapter, a theoretical framework for the study will be discussed. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature on the pedagogical functions of teacher talk. Also the role of teacher talk from a second language acquisition perspective will be discussed.
The role of teacher talk in foreign language teaching. Teacher talk plays a vital important role in language learning. Quite a few researchers have discussed the relationship between teacher talk and language learning. For example, Nunan(1991) maintains that “Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition.
It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans. In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive.” In Nunan‟s words, teacher talk is to fulfill two pedagogical functions: (1) as a tool of classroom management, and (2) as a source of comprehensible input. Regrading the first function of teacher talk in the classroom, Gower, Phillips and Walters (1995) clarify that in the classroom, teachers usually speak more when they present the grammar or structures containing in the lesson, clarifying them to help students understand the new knowledge, checking the understanding of students, modeling new structures. Furthermore, they need to talk more when they set up activities or give instructions and feedback in one classroom period.
Teacher Talk as a Tool of Classroom Management. From the classroom management perspective, teacher talk is needed for good classroom management. The teacher gives clear instructions to attract students‟ attention, and tells the students what they are expected to do, as well as to establish a good rapport by for example, calling on students by name, etc. Furthermore, there is nothing artificial about a situation involving the teacher praising a student or asking another to try again.
In addition to these, the teacher can explain something about the language that is being learned in a helpful and reassuring way, and check the students‟ understanding. Teacher Talk as a Source of Target Language Input. The language teacher uses in the classroom can provide authentic listening texts for his or her students. She or he uses the voice to read the texts, which sometimes helps students reduce stresses of listening comprehension.
Virtually, it is not always necessary to play a recording of an account, an anecdote or a joke if the teacher can provide the real TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. In addition, the teacher can often provide the best model for new language, which helps the students understand more clearly. There is no denying that it is better for the teacher to model the language personally than to use a recording. Most importantly, the language used by the teacher in the classroom is genuinely communicative.
By using the target language, the teacher reacts naturally to the students, who will often pick up the everyday words and expressions that the teacher uses in the classroom. In other words, the students learn the target language not just from the materials but also from the target language used by their teachers in the classroom. This point will be further discussed in the subsequent sections. Teacher Talk from the Second Language Acquisition Perspective.
One of the most relevant Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories to the discussion of teacher talk is Krashen‟s (1983) comprehensible input hypothesis. This hypothesis states simply that “ we acquire (not learn) language by understanding input that is a little beyond our current level of (acquired) competence” (Krashen and Terrell 1983:32). For instance, if a learner‟s stage is 'i', then acquisition occurs when he/she is exposed to comprehensible input that constitutes 'i + 1' level, provided that he/she understands (read: an acquirer is focused on the meaning rather than on form) language containing „i + 1‟. It can be achieved through reading and hearing structures, which slightly excel learner‟s current ability, as well as through context and extra-linguistic information.
The input itself can be divided into finely- and roughly-tuned.