CLASSROOM DISCOURSE: A CASE

STUDY OF TEACHER DISCOURSE

NGUYEN, THI THU HA

NGUYEN ,THI HOANG MY

 OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

LITERATURE REVIEW

METHODOLOGY

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION

RATIONALE Interest in DA

Professional
relevance
Gap in the
literature
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What is the most common type of question used

by the teacher and how frequent is it used?

Do different question types elicit different

responses from students?

What are the techniques of speech modification

used by the teacher?
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Barnes (1978) classifies questions into 4 main types:
Factual questions (what)
Reasoning questions (how and why)
Opening questions
Social questions

Sato and Long (1983): Display and Referential

Richards& Lockhart (2000)

procedural questions
convergent questions
divergent
 LITERATURE REVIEW
Ma (2006): majority of questions teacher use in class is display question
limit the students opportunity to develop their language competence

Roostini (2011) studied teachers questions in GE class based on their

functions, purpose and form display questions were used more in
classes of low-level students while referential questions were utilized
more with students of higher language competence.

Faruji (2011) concluded that teachers are inclined to use more factual
questions which require low-level reasoning.

Similar findings: Shomoossi (2004), Behnam and Pourian (2008), Liu and
Le (2012)

Yang (2010) : teachers extensive use of Y/N questions reduces students

chance to practice language and develop their communication skills
leading to short and simple answers.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Speech modification:

Syntactic modification

Lexical modification

Phonological modification

(Hakansson, 1990 and Ivanova , 2011 cited in Al-thiyabi, 2014)

 Speech modification is important

Over/under-simplification may hinder learning

Kim, 2003; Xiaohui, 2010

 PARTICIPANT
A lecturer at university
teaching an
undergraduate course

DATA COLLECTION
DATA COLLECTION
100-minute lesson:
Interview after the
recorded and
lesson
transcribed

Methodology
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Question type Display question Referential question

Number of 136 81% 32 19%
questions used
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Mostly Display questions

T: What is he doing?

S: doing homework

T: Does he have a lot of homework?

S: Yes
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Or:

T: controlling idea? Introduce what youre going to write about in the text.
Remember?

S: yes

T: what do we call them?

S: supporting sentences

T: sup. Sentence. How many?

S: 4.

S:5
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

T: Is it easy?

S: Yes.
Referential
questions were T: Ready?
mostly procedural
S: Yes
Qs short answers
T: Do you need
the 3rd time?

S: Yes
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Few referential questions could elicit longer answers

T: and you?
S: I dont like the traffic jam because it makes me angry
Students did not respond to the questions
T: who thinks they have the correct answer of my version?
S: silent
T: How do you know?
S: Silent

Lack of communication in the classroom

 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Mismatch between perception and realization

T: The initial objective [of this lesson] is to get students to use
conditional type II in communication. They can either use it in
conversations or exchanges. After I asked them questions about
the usage [of conditional sentence type II] and we did some
examples, I got them to practice by playing game in order to help
them memorize the structure. In fact, the students grammar
knowledge was quite limited so I had to teach them instead of
revising. It is critical that they remember and use the structure
correctly. The ultimate purpose of the game is to get students to
master the use of conditional sentence type II without making any
mistakes.
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Teacher expects students to give long responses (with

explanation) but ends up asking Y/N questions more
attention paid to questioning.

Importance of raising teachers awareness

 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Most common discourse marker:

- Right: 26 times

- Alright: 5 times
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

SPEECH MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES:

- Simple and short structures

T: Now (1.0) I would like yo:u to do:: a small activities

(). You will (0.8) have a pie::ce of paper ()
- High-frequency words: mean of syllable in teachers
talk ~ 0.99
 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Phonological: clearly articulated speech with slow pace

T: Look at the picture (3.0) what is he doing?

T: Does he have (.) a lot of homework?

T: And (2.5) whatdoes he wish?

 IMPLICATIONS

Use as a tool for professional development (reflective

practice)

Integrate classroom discourse analysis in pre-service

teacher training
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!