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b. The Role of Teacher Talk in Foreign Language Learning
As a tool of implementating teaching plans and achieving teaching goals, Teacher Talk TT plays a vital role in language learning. In Indonesia English is
learnt as a foreign language and the students learn English mostly in a language class with a non-supportive environment, therefore TT is likely to be the major or
even the only one source of the target language input. Krashen 1985 says TT determines successful language learning by providing plenty of high quality input
for the language itself. In line with Nunan 1991, he points out that teacher talk is a crucial of importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for
the process of acquisition. It is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementating their plans. In terms of acquisition, TT is important because
it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner
is likely to recieve. c. The Functions of Teacher Talk
In this study the researcher focuses on the function of TT mostly used by the teachers when they address foreign language learning in the classroom. Hence,
in this section the researcher discusses several functions of language used by the teacher.
1 Teacher’s questions
Question is one of the most common techniques used by teachers and serves as the principal way when they want to control the classroom interaction
Richards, 1996. As a technique used by the teacher in the classroom, questions can be explained by the specific functions they perform. These functions can be
grouped into three broad areas according to Donal and Eggen 1989: First, as a
12 diagnostic tool, questions allow the teacher to glimpse into the minds of students
to find out not only what they know or do not know and also how they think about the topic. Through strategic questioning, the teacher can assess the current
knowledge of student in their mind, and identifying students‟ gaps and misconceptions Donald and Eggen, 1989. Second, as an instructional function,
questions provide an opportunity for students to learn new materials and integrate them with the old one, they provide the practice and feedback which esessential
for the development, and they also alert students to the informations in a lesson. Third, as a motivational function, questions allow teachers to engage students
actively in the teaching and learning process, challenging their thinking and posing problem for them to consider. From a lesson perspective, a question at the
beginning of the lesson can be used to capture students‟ attention and provide a
focus for the lesson. In addition, frequent and periodic questions can encourage active participation and provide opportunities in the lesson for continuous student
involvement. According to Barnes 1969 the questions asked by the teacher can be
classified into four types, 1 questions concerning factual matters and apparently ask for specific facts or data, that is the questions beginning with
„what‟, „when‟, „who‟, and „where‟; 2 questions beginning with „how‟ and „why‟ which are
classified as reasoning question because they appreantly require some reasoning from students. Barnes further classifies the second type into, 3 closed question
and 4 open question. The closed question has only one acceptable answer while open question has more than one acceptable answers.
13 Meanwhile, Richards and Lockhart 1996 classify the questions into three
catagories in term of the purpose of question in the classroom. They are: procedural, convergent, and divergent questions. Procedural questions have to do
with the classroom procedures and routines and classroom management. Convergent and divergent questions are designed to engage students in the content
of lesson, to facilitate comprehension, and to promote classroom interaction. Convergent questions encourage similar students responses, or responses with
focus on a central theme, such as short answer „yes‟ or „no‟ questions which
expect short answers from the students. Teachers do not require students to engage in high level thingking. Divergent questions on the other hand, encourage
diverse students responses which require higher-level thinking. Further, Richards and Lockhart 1996: 185 state that there are several reasons why questions are
commonly used in teaching. Those are: 1 Stimulate an d maintain student‟s
interest; 2 Encourage students to think and focus on the content of the lesson; 3 Enable a teacher to clarify what a student has said; 4 Enable a teacher to elicit
particular structures or vocabulary items; 5 Enable a teacher t o check student‟s
understanding; and 6 Encourage students participation in a lesson. Long and Sato 1983 identify two types of questions that may be asked by
teachers in teaching-learning process in the classroom: display and referential questions. When the teacher know the answers of the questions but they want to
elicit or display particular structure, the teacher proposes display questions e.g. what is the opposite of word
„slow‟ in English?. Referential questions are used when the teacher do not know the answer to but the teacher tend to elicit various
subjective information e.g. Where did you go yesterday?.
14 Wu 1993 claims that both display and referential questions have
important fuctions to perform in teaching and learning language. They can also be one of the ways for eliciting output. However, the use of different types of
questions does not guarantee that the quantitiy or quality of classroom interaction will be improved. What is important that the questioning strategies used by the
teacher in order to elicit oral responses from the students and to develop their grammatical competence in term of the target language input. Unfortunately, in
the classroom, teachers tend to ask more display questions rather than referential questions Long and Sato, 1983. Teachers who often ask display questions are
likely to encourage students to emitate fact without trying to develop it according to their own understanding and it will make students less confidence to
communicate their own ideas in the target language Tsui, 1995.
2 Teacher’s feedback
Besides questions, another very important aspect of teacher talk is providing feedback to student responses. Feedback is teachers‟ evaluation of the
student response Cook, 2000. When teachers do not give a feedback, the student assume that there must be something wrong or unsatisfactory with their answer
and response Tsui, 1995. Feedback may serve not only to let the learner know how well they have performed but also to increase motivation and build a
supportive classroom climate. In language classroom, feedback on student‟s spoken language may be a response either to the content of what a student has
produced or to th e form of an utterance. Feedback by the teacher, where teacher‟s
response to students contributions focuses on the content of what the student says
15 the message rather than on the form such as the correctness of the grammar or
pronunciation Cullen R., 1998. Richards and Lockhart 1996 state that feedback can be given by means
of praise, by any relevant comment or action. Students learned how smart they were, mainly from the
teacher‟s feedback in the form of marks, comments and the degree and type of praise and criticism. Students show a higher achievment by
getting more positive feedback from the teacher as well as being given more opportunities to perform, to be challenged and to serve as leaders. In the other
hand, students show a lower achievment by getting negative feedback, more direction, and help giving as well.
Feedback has two main different components: correction and assessment Ur, 2000. In the process of learning, can not be avoided that learners will make
mistakes. Brown 2002: 205 says that: “A learner‟s error ... are significant in
that they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedure the learner is employing in the discovery of
the language.” It is a vital part of teacher‟s role to point out students‟ mistakes and provide some corections on it mistakes. In correction, some specific informations
are provided on aspects of the learners‟ performance, through explanation, or
provision of better or other alternative, or through elicitation of these from the learner Ur, 2000. Correction helps students to clarify their understanding of
meaning and construction of the language. Futhermore, it is good to praise the learners for their success and correct them when they fail. Teacher can show their
praise through the use of encouraging words and noises excellent, good, well done, fantastic, good job, etc. when students are doing really well Harmer,
16 2000. Assessment refers to the tool, technique, and procedure for collecting and
interpreting information about what learners can and can not do Nunan, 1989. In assessment, learners are simply informed how well or badly heshe has performed.
Comments such as excellent and very good are commons at the end of a written assignment Ur, 2000. The one important thing is that the teachers must not
forget that assesement is given with one purpose, that is to help and promote EFL learning.
3. Translation Code switching
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