1

A CASE STUDY OF TEACHER TALK AS INPUT IN EFL CLASSROOM

DISCOURSE

Thesis Proposal

Advisors

Prof. Dr. Yazid Basthomi, M.A

Dr. Suharmanto, M.Pd

By:

Lintang Kumalaning Angkasa

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

2015
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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The present study investigates how teacher talk as input in English as a

foreign language classes. In this chapter, the researcher discusses the background

of the study, the objective of the study, the significance of the study, and some

definition of key terms

1.1 Background of the Study

In teaching English as a foreign language, how to teach the target

language has become a serious matter for practitioners. Teachers play important

roles as the source of target language and as promoter to students’ ability in

learning. Therefore, as an indispensable part in foreign language teaching,

comprehensible input in classroom interaction needs to be worked on as a primary

concern (Krasen,1982).

The term comprehensible input comes from the theory of second

language acquisition. Comprehensible input becomes an indispensable part of

language acquisition because it provides learners with the real situation of the

target language (Hasan, 2008). Reaching the goal of comprehensible input,

teachers in EFL classes needs to modify their speech and instruction. Crossley and

Namara (2010) assert that speech modification aims to make the talk

comprehensible or understandable by students at different level of communicative

competence.
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By giving a comprehensible and understandable instruction, teachers

expose students to know and use the target language (Ellis, 2002: 144). The

importance of input is also supported by Bahrani (2013). He states that it is

important to give a comprehensible input since EFL learners are influenced by the

internal factor and external factor. The internal factors include the mental

disposition of a learner, the aptitude, and the ability to handle communication

process (Ellis, 1997: 73). On the other hand, the external factor covers the

condition in which learners are exposed to operate the target language, in other

words, the input.

Input can be either written or oral and obtained in natural setting or in the

classroom (Yang, 2007). According to Ellis (1997:46), input is the instructional

modification functions as a media of negotiated meaning. Supporting ideas about

indispensability of input has also been proposed by Kumaravadivelu (2006: 26)

who states that input affects students’ behavior in learning. It is because input

plays a role to give exposure to students to make sense of what they hear or see in

order to notice the context in which the language is used. Gass and Selinker

(1994), also see input as the any exposure that teacher makes for his/her students.

One of the ways to give exposure in classroom is teacher talk. The term

of teacher talk was firstly introduced by Krashen. Teacher talk is seen important

because learners will acquire language and develop literacy when they understand

message (Krashen, 2003). Krashen further states that when students understand

what they hear and what they read, then they are called achieving the

comprehensible input. Teacher talk has also been widely viewed by experts. Xiao-

yan (2006) views teacher talk as a variety of language used by the teacher for
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instruction in the classroom. The instruction can be in form of simplifying their

speech, giving characteristics of foreigner talk and other simplified style

addressed to language learners (Richards, 1992: 471). Ellis (1985:304) describes it

as teacher adjustment to both language form and function in order to facilitate

communication. It is simplified and followed by an attempt to make it look like as

natural as possible (Shinde & Karekatti, 2010). In EFL classes, teacher talk

becomes the major source of comprehensible target language input in the

instructed language environment. Thus, it plays an integral role in the

organization of the classroom as well as in acquisition process (Nunan, 1991).

In order to make teacher talk works, it is the duty of the teacher to be able

to put him/ herself the same as learners’ way of thinking (Smith, 1988). The

function of putting teacher as learner deals with assumption that the input must be

just above their current competence. Teacher may also facilitate the input by

managing its tool (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). The management covers the topic

management, talk management, gestures, facial expression, and intonation, visual

cues, drawing, using multiple examples, and questioning modification. Lastly,

teacher may also use repetition. Repetition on the basis is important since it

reflects that teacher is not overloading students with too much new information.

The nature of teacher talk is derived from the belief of second language

acquisition. According to second language acquisition theories, both teachers and

students should be involved actively in classroom (Xiao-yan, 2006). Yan further

states that teachers have tasks in language classrooms to : 1) offer high quality

English language input; 2) offer opportunities for students to use the target
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language. Therefore, the distribution of teacher talk, as an important factor that

affect language learning, has been concerned by many scholars.

Teacher talk as input is the necessary element for successful language

teaching. When the second language is learnt as a foreign language in language

class in a non-supportive environment, instruction is likely to be the major or even

the only source of target language input (Stern, 1983:400). This factor brings

teacher talk to an important role in language teaching and learning. According to

Nunan (1991), teacher talk is not only important for the organization of the

classroom, but also for the process of acquisition. Teacher talk is proven by

Allwright and Bailey (1991) as the basis for teachers to lead students’ responses.

The needs of teacher It is known as IRF (teacher initiation, students’ reply, teacher

feedback).

The other factor that brings teacher talk to become an important role is

formal adjustment (Xiao-yan, 2006). It happens at all language levels. Teachers

choose different words to accmplish the need of classrom teaching.

Ungrammatical speech modificcations should not ocur in teachers’ language in

class, because teachers language will be the model for students to imitate. This

condition then is elaborated further as the features of teacher talk.

The idea of how teacher is going specifically on the features of the

teacher talk is supported by other experts (Cullen, 1998; Long and Sato, 1983;

Xuewen, 2006; Xiao-yan, 2006). They derive the modification of teacher talk

used in classroom situation. The tendency of modification is described as the

following; (a) rate of speech appears to be slower. This functions to let students to

process the language they listened to, (b) pauses, which may be evidence of the
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speaker planning more are possibly more frequent and longer, (c) pronunciation

tends to be exaggerated and simplified, and if it is necessary repetition are

possible to do, (d) vocabulary use is more basic since it adjusts the level of the

students (e) degree of subordination is slower, (f) more declarative and statement

are used than questions, (g) teacher may self-repeat more frequently. Not only

that, teacher may also drill the students when it is necessary as the follow up

activity.

As what has been explained previously, those features occur during the

teaching-learning process or in classroom discourse. Yanfen and Yuqin (2010)

narrow the classroom discourse into three phases. The teacher talk interaction can

be found in each phase. The first phase is the opening phase. This is where the

participants inform each other that they are, in fact, going to conduct a lesson as

opposed to some other activity. The second phase is called business phase. This is

where information is exchanged between teacher and students. In this phase,

teacher also elaborates the activity into telling the material to the students, getting

students to do and say things, evaluating the things that students do and say. This

is also the phase where the interaction gets more intense. The third phase is the

closing phase. This is where participants are reminded of what they have been

through during the lesson.

Each phase in the classroom discourse are divided into features where

opening phase consists of questioning, invitation and direction. Meanwhile,

informing, prompting, encouraging, criticizing, ignoring, acknowledgement, and

comment can occur in business and closing phase.

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The following table provides the phase as well as the distribution of the

features in classroom discourse adapted from Sinclair and Brazil, 1982; Yanfen &

Yuqin, 2010).

Table 1.1 Classroom Discourse Distributions

Questioning
Initiation (opening phase) Invitation
Direction
Informing
Prompting
Interaction
Follow-up To incorrect answers Encouragement
(bussiness and Criticizing
closing phase) Ignoring
Acknowledgement
To correct answers
Comment

Questioning is an important feature found in the initiation of classroom.

It is the most frequently used technique to initiate classroom interaction due its

power to stimulate students’ motivation, focus their attention, help learning and

thinking (Richards et al., 2004). It is a request for information from the teacher to

students. Observing how the teacher talk plays role in the questioning part will

provide how the classroom initiation should be done. It is known that using

suitable style of questioning will result in learners oral output (Hu, 2004).

Invitation in the opening phase means that the teacher acts as chairperson or host

and uses imperative and interrogative sentences to ask students to do activities

(Yanfen & Yuqin, 2010). It is a process of allowing students to express their

ideas. Moreover, invitation is usually consecutive after teacher delivers questions

to students. The last feature in the opening phase is direction. This means a direct

order from the teacher to students to do certain activities (Kuhn, 2007). It is in

form of direct order to make the instruction can be understood clearly by students.
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In the following phase, there are also some features which need to take

into account. The features depends on the students response toward the interaction

that teacher initiates. The features informing, prompting, criticizing, encouraging,

and ignoring will be used by teacher when facing students’ incorrect answer.

Informing, in this case is a direct way to help students to understand their

mistakes (Rashidi & Babaie, 2008). It involves the provision of explicit

information about the linguistic form that is perceived as the problems. Different

from informing, prompting is considered as the teachers’ effort to raise learners’

awareness of the errors they have made and push them to self-correct using

strategies like repetition and clarification (Samani & Noordin, 2013). In simply,

the use of informing and prompting differs in terms of the directness and

indirectness way to help students to understand their mistakes.

Encouragement is a way to motivate students to build their confidence. It

is considered as an act to inspire students with courage (Tollefson, 2000 ; Cheng

& Dornyei, 2007). Teacher’s act to encourage students is needed when the

students produce wrong answer as well as showing hesitation. Criticizing is to

comment on students’ incorrect response severely. It’s also a test on how far

students understand a lesson so. The last feature to respond to students’ incorrect

answer is ignoring. It is the action taken by teacher where s/he does not pay

attention toward students’ incorrect answer. Teacher uses this feature to give

chance to other students to give their ideas regarding the incorrect answer (Yanfen

& Yuqin, 2010).

Following up to the correct responses from students, comment and

acknowledgement are the most commonly used features. Comment is used when
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teacher wants to explore further regarding the students’ correct answer. It is also

used to encourage other students to provide a correct answer as well. On the other

hand, acknowledgement refers to the very brief feedback from the teacher in

response to correct answer.

Teacher talk will occur in each phase of the classroom discourse. The use

of teacher talk in each phase needs to take into account because teacher discourse

in each phase determines the teacher capability and the effectiveness of classroom

situation. The classroom interaction will be considered effective when teacher can

utilize the aforementioned types of teacher talk in each phase of classroom

discourse. Nunan (1991) also states that it is important to investigate about the

teacher talk use in classroom because it influences the organization and

management of the classroom in implementing the teaching plan.

Teacher talk as an instruction model has been supported by several

research findings. Owen (1996) examined how teachers use teacher talk as

medium to improve students’ proficiency. He conducted a research by using two

groups of students who took part-time EFL instruction at a college of Further

Education in United Kingdom. His result of analysis shows that increasing the

amount of teacher talk on specific phase can improve students’ proficiency.

Teacher talk in his case were : (1) give each students the same chance to speak;

(2) use more complex lexical content for the teacher talk group (3) Inserted more

receptive pauses as the comprehension aids; (4) Increased the question tags; (5)

decreased the used of imperatives. This finding supports the idea that teacher talk

suits the most with students’ proficiency. Having the same point of view with

Owen (1996), Wang (2001) also conducted similar research regarding the use of
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teacher talk. His research found that modified input or teacher talk increases

students proficiency level. The use of teacher talk in classroom is also

empowering teachers to modify their speech into the first 1000 frequent English

words instead of translate that into learners’ native language (Horst, 2010). Horst

(2010) investigated word families that occurred in a spoken language addressed to

a group of learners in Korea during the conversational courses. Considering the

teacher’s comprehensibility, the findings show that there are many familiar words

that are uttered during the classroom activities which makes students get used to

speak in target language. This result is then supported by Tang (2011) who finds

that the use of teacher talk in classroom helps learners to build their incidental

vocabulary acquisition.

1.2 Objective of the Study

Taking into consideration of the explanation above, this research aims at

investigating; (1) what forms of teacher talk that occurs, (2) which forms of the

teacher talk occurs the most, (3) why do those forms of teacher talk are dominant

in teaching and learning process.

1.3 Significance of the Study

This research is expected to give clear explanation about the underlying

reason why teacher prefer to use certain type of teacher talk framework as the

media of interaction. Next, this research is expected to give contribution to

teachers as their consideration. Furhtermore, this research is also expected to give

contribution to the board of knowledge about teacher talk. For prospective

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researchers, this study may become the source of knowledge to conduct similar

study to this present study.

1.4 Definition of Key Terms

Avoiding the misconception of the terms, some operational definitions of the

key terms used in this study are given as follows:

Teacher talk refers to the oral language that is uttered by teachers as a

research subject in this study. It contains modified speech utterances such as

slowing the rate of speech, pauses, simple pronunciation, basic use of vocabulary

items, and frequent repetitions

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CHAPTER II

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter presents the research method implemented in the

present study. It is in sequence arrangement as follows; research design,

participants, research setting, data sources, instruments, data collection

procedures, data analysis and credibility of data

2.1 Research Design

Having a purpose on explaining teacher talk used by teachers from

different works period, qualitative approach is utilized, specifically case study.

Several teachers who are as the subjects of this study are teaching in different

schools has led the researcher to utilize multi-site case study. Bogdan and Biklen

(1992) define multi site study as a study which invvolves many sites and subjects.

This study also uses a descriptive case study. As explained by Berg

(2001), there are three types of case study namely exploratory, explanatory, and

descriptive case study. Descriptive case study is chosen because in the beginning

of this research, the researcher found a phenomenon of kinds of input used in

teaching and learning process. This phenomenon is described in detail.

Specifically, the researcher aims to describe the teacher talk used by teachers from

different work period.

2.2 Participants

The subjects of this study are English teachers in senior high school in

Malang. The English teachers are selected from the data about qualified EFL

teachers given by the Education Department.

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The subjects’ also active members of English Teacher Forum of

Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP). Their active involvement can be

identified from their regular participation of MGMP activities. In this respect, the

teachers active involvement in MGMP are one of the indications that teachers are

concerned on their professionalism as teachers since MGMP can be one of teacher

forums to share with other teacher.

Besides, teachers were involved to have broader view on the use teacher

talk in classroom discourse. Teacher in this study must fulfill these following

criteria: (1) have knowledge on the different use of teacher talk in classroom

instruction (2) have a will to participate in this study.

2.3 Setting of the Research

This study will take place in one school that provides teacher that use

teacher talk in their classroom instruction. The specific place will be determined

after preliminary observation on several schools. The place must fulfill all of the

criteria that have been mentioned previously.

2.4 Research Instrument

The researcher is the key instrument to collect the data. This means

that researcher will interpret and decide the result from observation of the

phenomenon. The researcher will use other instrument to help the interpretation of

data. The instruments are provided as follows:

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1. Audio Recorder

Audio recorder is used to record sentences or utterances that are

produced by the English teacher’s voice. This tool is really useful to keep the data

in the form of audio. The audio can be played when the researcher finds out that it

is necessary to replay it.

2. Field note

Field note is a handy tool to write some important utterance, moments,

and activities that occurs in the classroom during teaching and learning process.

This item can support data that had been recorded. This note is a semi open note

where any additional information is possibly encountered during the observation.

3. Interview Guide

Interview guide is an important tool as guidelines to interview the subjects

of the study. This item can help the researcher to know the reason of using

interlanguage talk and teacher talk in teaching and learning process.

2.5 Data Collection

The data collection will run into several steps, namely the source of data

and procedure of data collection. The distribution is provided as follows:

2.5.1 Source of Data

The main data in this study are the transcript data from the result oral

production from the result of teachers’ and students’ interview. The result of

interview will be processed as follows: (1) recording process, (2) converting

process where all recorded interview is converted using Audacity computer

software, (3) the audio files are stored on a laptop to be retrieved later for
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transcription, (4) categorizing process, (5) analyzing process, and (6) interpreting

data findings. A semi- structured individual interview is carried out to each of the

participant. The interview lasts for around 30 minutes. It will be conducted during

school hours, and the subjects need to follow the interview protocol.

Field observation is conducted to know how the implementation of the

teacher talk is in the classroom. Taking notes during observation is necessary to

record the phenomenon occurred in class. The observation will focus on the

language that is used during the initial phase and the follow up phase to see which

of the framework occur the most

2.5.2 Procedure of Data Collection

In the process of collecting the data, there are some steps used by the

researcher. The steps are described as follows, (1) doing preliminary study to

identify where the phenomenon occurs, why, and how it occurs, (2) decide the

setting of the research based on the criteria fulfillment, go to the school that is

decided as the setting of the study and make an appointment to conduct the

research with the headmaster, (3) make an agreement with the subjects of the

study, (4) collecting the data (observing subjects, interview, recording, and taking

field notes during the school hours)

2.6 Data Analysis

The data analysis will follow several steps. Firstly, after collecting the

data, the researcher transcribed all of data into written form in order to ease the

researcher to interpret the data. From the transcribed, the researcher only takes

data that needs to be interpreted further to answer the research questions. The data

then are classified based on the needs to answer the research questions. It is
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mainly taken as primary, secondary, and tertiary. The data are discussed through

the interpretation of meaning. The interpretation is formulated into tick

description and in depth understanding. After all the steps above are completed,

the researcher concluded the result in form of description, table, and chart and

followed by examples to support the description.

2.7 Credibility of Data

Enhancing the data credibility in the present study, the researcher

formulated one of the popular method used in qualitative research. The researcher

utilizes Evidenced Based on Structural Corroboration. This method collects

multiple types of data which are related each other to support or contradict the

interpretation (Eisner, 1998). Therefore, data triangulation is needed in the present

study.

In the data triangulation, the researcher investigated whether the findings

of data analysis which was interpreted by employing one procedure or instrument

support or contrast with one collected using different procedure or instrument. In

this case, besides collecting data through questionnaires, the researcher also

utilizes the use of semi structured- interview. After both data are interpreted, the

results will be compared one another to find its relation.

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