T1 112009078 Full text
Investigating Teacher Talk in the Classroom Interaction at a Junior High
School in Salatiga
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
DwinaRinjaniPutri
112009078
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i
Investigating Teacher Talk in the Classroom Interaction at a Junior High
School in Salatiga
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
DwinaRinjaniPutri
112009078
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i
ii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. DwinaRinjaniPutri and Prof. Dr. GustiAstika, MA
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, SatyaWacana University, Salatiga.
DwinaRinjaniPutri: (
)
iii
iv
Investigating Teacher Talk in the Interaction to the Students in
English Classrooms at a Junior High School in Salatiga
DwinaRinjaniPutri
SatyaWacana Christian University, Salatiga
Abstract
Teacher talk holds an essential part in teaching and learning process, especially in
teaching and learning language, as the interactive devices that will encourage more interactions
between teachers and students in the classroom. Interaction is the important factor in the success
of teaching and learning process. This study was conducted to investigate teachers‟ teacher talk
in their interactions to the students that happened in English classrooms at a junior high school in
Salatiga. Descriptive method was adopted for this study. The participants of this study were two
English teachers and students from eight classes. The data were collected from observations in
eight English classes in the school. The result of this study found some teachers‟ initiation and
follow-up strategies in developing the interaction in classroom.
Key Words:teacher talk, initiation strategies, follow-up strategies, classroom interaction.
Introduction
Background of the Study
As a lingua franca or language of international communication, English is seen as a
language that needs to be mastered especially by people in non English speaking countries.
According to Gilby (2011), English is the official or joint official language in over 75 countries
1
worldwide and is therefore recognized as the language of international communication. The use
of English in many international businesses and technologies have encouraged many people from
all over the world, whose first language is not English, to learn English in order to be able to take
part in the globalization era. As a result, the demand of teaching English as a foreign language
(TEFL) and or teaching English as a second language (TESL) is increasing.
In Indonesia, English is seen as the most important language to be taught as a foreign
language (EFL), though it is not used as the language of the society (Simatupang, 1999: 64 in
Lauder, 2008). English is an important subject that has to be taught in Indonesia, from
kindergarten to university. Some schools use English as the medium of instruction in teaching
and learning. English is tested in the National Examination which means that English is seen as
the essential subject which determines students‟ graduation. Because of this reason, many
innovations have been tried out for the success of learning English in Indonesia. One example is
the Communicative Approach which aims to stimulate students‟ active participation in learning
English (Li-ping, 2012).
In order to stimulate active participation in classroom, English teachers have
responsibilities to create interaction in the classroom. According to Ellis (1985), the quality of
interaction is thought to have a significant influence on learning process (cited in
Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012). Khan (2009) also states that language proficiency can be
achieved through interaction. So, classroom setting where English is taught plays a big role in
creating a meaningful teaching and learning process, especially classroom interaction that
happens in it. There are seven types of classroom interactions proposed by Malamah-Thomas
(1987, as cited in Mingzhi, 2005); teacher speaks to the whole class, teacher speaks to an
individual student, teacher speaks to a group of students, student speaks to teacher, student
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speaks to other student (classmate), student speaks to group members, and student speaks to the
whole class. Although there are many kinds of interactions, interaction in the classroom is mostly
initiated by the teacher. So, it can be said that classroom interaction is inseparable with teacher
talk, especially in Indonesia where teachers are still the most authoritative figures in class to
control the classroom.
Teacher talk is the language used mostly in the classroom to give directions, explain
activities and check students‟ understanding (Sinclair & Brazil, 1982, as cited in Zhang, 2012).
Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) believe that teacher talk holds a very significant role in the teaching
process as interactive devices that will encourage more interactions between teachers and
students in the classroom. Therefore, following the IRF interactive pattern proposed by Sinclair
& Brazil(1982) which represent initiation from the teacher (I), response from the students (R),
and follow-up from the teacher (F), this study focused on the initiation and follow-up pattern
since both patterns are realized through teacher talk that is usually applied by teachers in
establishing interaction in classroom. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate the
pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction to the students in English classrooms in one
private junior high school in Salatiga.
LiteratureReview
Classroom interaction is an important point where the communication between teachers
and learners takes place. Khan (2009) states that interaction in language class has a great
influence on learning. It seems that classroom interaction is the core element of teaching and
learning process which means that without interaction there is no teaching and learning process.
However, in the traditional method of teaching and learning in Indonesia, which was really
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teacher-centered, interactions in classroom was less likely to occur. The teacher only gave
explanation and the students were asked to be silent and pay attention to the explanation. This
kind of interaction seems discouraging students‟ ability to use the language, especially in
learning foreign language. Therefore, they become less proficient in problem solving, unable to
initiate in order to learn something new, unable to cooperate with other peers, and unable to
express their opinions or feeling even though they have a huge respect for others (Schmuck and
Schmuck, 2001, as cited in Matsumoto, 2008).
Interaction and teacher talk are two important things in teaching and learning process that
can not be separated. Tsui (1995) as cited in Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) points out that the
development and success of a class depends on the degree of the interactions between the teacher
and students. And the occurrence of interaction is affected directly by the ways of teacher talk
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010). Teacher talk is an interactive device to implement the teaching plan,
teacher talk is very important for both classroom teaching organization and students‟ language
learning in the process of foreign language learning and second language acquisition (Xiao-hui,
2010). In other words, Lin (2005) added that “a good teacher talk is an interactional input with
modifications in the classroom and aims to facilitate learners‟ comprehension in the language
acquisition process”.
Many researchers believe that the most frequently used interactive pattern in classroom is
the IRF models proposed by Sinclair and Brazil (1982). The explanation of this model is that in
classroom interaction, there are initiations from the teacher in giving questions, and then the
students participate in answering the questions as their response to the questions being asked,
and end with feedback from the teacher. Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) propose the framework of
teacher talk which can be seen in the table below.
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Tabel 1.Framework of teacher talk (Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010)
Questioning
Initiation
Invitation
Direction
Inform
Prompt
Interaction
To no and incorrect
answer
Follow-up
Encouragement
Criticizing
Ignoring
To correct answer
Acknowledgement
Comment
The framework follows the IRF (Initiation Response Follow-up), but it only focuses on
the teacher talk in developing interaction in classroom which are through initiation and follow-up
(IF). Question, invitation, and direction techniques are included in the initiation stage of the
teacher talk. The follow-up stage are divided into two parts which are follow-up to no and
incorrect answers and follow-up to correct answers. Follow-up to no and incorrect answer has
some techniques, such as; informing, prompting, encouraging, criticizing, and ignoring
techniques. Acknowledgement and comment techniques are the techniques of follow-up to
correct answer.
Teachers play a big role in encouraging students to be willing to participate through
asking some questions. Thus, questioning technique is seen as the effective way to initiate
students‟ participation that will lead to interaction between teacher and students. Xiao-hui (2010)
states that in EFL context, to construct appropriate questioning technique, teachers should
provide an information gap between the teacher and the students related to a topic that is relevant
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to the students‟ life that can arouse their interests and require a stage of thinking that extends
students‟ intelligence. Besides, questions with information gap will give chances for students to
discuss life issues and share the individuals‟ perspectives of the issues.Kalantari (2009) adds that
questioning strategies is one of the influential strategies in creating classroom interaction.
Questioning strategy can encourage foreign learners to initiate language and develop interaction
with the teacher by answering the teacher‟s questions. There are two types of questions usually
used by teachers to develop interaction which are display questions (the teacher already knows
the answers) and referential questions (the teacher doesn‟t know the answers). Referential
questions are considered to be more effective to encourage students to think more and produce
more. Low referential question may indicate the students‟ lack of English knowledge,
comprehension, and proficiency of the material (Murdoch, 1999).
In the follow-up pattern, the teachers give the feedback toward students‟ responses.
Xiao-hui (2010) stated that feedback is the response to the students‟ efforts to communicate,
including the notion of error correction, which has power to influence motivation. It means that
through feedback, the teacher can motivate the students to participate in classroom interaction. In
this interaction, the teacher‟s feedback plays an important part in elucidating and building on the
ideas that the students express in their responses, and in developing a meaningful conversation
between teacher and the whole class (Cullen, 2002). So, after the initiation in building interaction
through questioning strategy, the teacher will give feedback to the answers that the students give
as their response to the questions. This kind of interaction is very common to occur in classroom
situation. It seems that the teacher is always the one who initiates the interaction.
In addition, there are some activities that can be implemented to encourage interaction in
classroom. Group work is one of the activities that can be used in enhancing interaction in
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classroom. Khan (2009) believes that group work helps teacher to reduce the teacher-centered
style and increases the opportunity for students to participate in classroom interaction. Group
will also provide opportunity to the peers to share experiences and insights. He added that pair
activities promote better interaction because both students can share knowledge to solve a
problem or complete a task through communication (Khan, 2009). Group work can also provide
the effective interaction in classroom where the learners can construct communication and
negotiation with their peers.
Since classroom study is important in English teaching and learning, many researchers
have done many studies in this field. Observation done by Murdoch (1999) on classroom
interaction in language classes in Korean University found that the teacher was more likely to
ask display question and give feedback to the students. However, some referential questions also
appeared in teacher-student interaction, in particular, the teacher only asked referential question
to individual not to the whole class. So, it seems that display questions that require yes/no
answers and general knowledge that the teacher has already known is more popular in Korea
than referential questions that are believed can help students to explore more knowledge and
practice the target language more. In contrast, a direct observation that David (2007) has done in
six random secondary schools in Oyo and Osun state revealed that referential questions created
less interaction compared to display questions even though the frequency of display questions
use in the classroom is less than referential questions use. This fact proves that referential
questions are not always the most effective strategies in building interaction, yet it depends on
the situation of the classroom and the students.
In China, cultural tradition has a great influence on the relationship among the teachers
and students. The relationship among the teachers and students is much more hierarchical. So,
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there is such a distance between teacher and students that makes a little or almost never
interaction between teacher and student. The authority of controlling the classroom is on the
teachers‟ hand (Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012). This kind of situation is really teacher-centered
which somehow discouraging students to get involved in classroom interaction.Pishghadam and
Torghabeh (2009) found that Iranian classes are generally teacher-centered and the students are
given less opportunity to express themselves. The students are seldom asking questions because
they are afraid of making mistake. It is clear that those students get minimum exposure to
practice the target language they learn for communication because they have only little chance to
“speak up” in class.
Fillmore (cited Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012) has investigated that classroom interaction
influences the rate of SLA. She compared the progress of the sixty L2 learners in different
classrooms and found that neither the difference in classroom work nor the difference in the type
of teaching gave influences in the success of language learning. The students will gain more
successful in learning if they are given many opportunities to involve in interaction through
communication. It strengthens the point that communication in classroom as the type of
interaction is needed to the success in language learning.
In relation to the role of communication as the type of interaction, research on classroom
interaction proposed that meaningful conversation and negotiation between teacher-student and
student-students in class will make the input comprehensible (Long, 1983, as cited in Mingzhi,
2008). Therefore, communication engaged in classroom not only creates interaction among
students and teacher, but also makes comprehensive input toward the learning process.
Other findings show that in senior high school in Pekanbaru, interaction in the classroom
is developed through teacher talk where the teacher is the one who always initiates the
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interaction (Fauziah, 2009). Actually, this is also related to the culture that Indonesia has. Similar
to Japanese students who are really obedient to the teachers (Matsumoto, 2008), Indonesian
students traditionally were also taught to really respect their teacher. It is good to be respectful,
but the point is that the perception of respect in here is students have to obey the teacher, and the
teacher is never making mistakes. It makes almost no interaction between teacher and students.
The interaction happened is just between the teacher and the whole class. The students were
likely to be silent and reluctant to participate in class because the education system in the past
gave less opportunity for the students to share their opinion or to “speak up”.
Nowadays, all of educators concern to improve learners ability to communicate with
others, especially in learning language. The more we use the language, the more proficient we
are in that language. So, in order to create successful language learning, the learners should be
exposed to use the language frequently. One way to get students exposed to the language is
through asking them to communicate in the target language. Nonetheless, using the language that
is not the language of the society may not be easy. Many EFL students may feel uncomfortable
communicating using English. Because of that reason, it is the job of EFL teachers to motivate
the students to be willing to start using English in conversation maybe from the interaction in
classroom before going out to the society. The result of research on classroom interaction in
Iranian EFL schools indicates that teacher used self-disclosure strategy to motivate students to
participate more in discussions that will improve their speaking ability (Pishghadam and
Torghabeh, 2009). Self-disclosure is used to reduce stress and anxiety that the students have, to
maximize individual security in class, to maintain a close relationship with the students, and to
provide appropriate models of teaching and learning for the students.
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In addition, Aubrey (2010) in the past research believes that not only teachers who are
responsible for establishing interaction in classroom, but students also have the role to be the
meaningful participants in EFL classrooms. In order to reach the goal of being significant
participants in the classroom, students have to be ready to interact with their mates, have low
anxiety to interact with their peers, be interested in the topic of the lesson, and understand the
teacher‟s idea and believe in her or his teaching method. Those aspects will help building
communicative interaction among the students and also between the teacher and the students in
classroom since both teachers and students are willing to communicate each other.
As explained above, many researches have been done to investigate the classroom
interactions happen in many schools‟ setting in Iran, Japan, and other countries. The researches
also show the significance of interaction in language classes for the achievement of the success
of language learning. However, a study of classroom interaction in Indonesia, particularly
Salatiga, is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the classroom interaction in EFL
classrooms setting in Salatiga related to teacher talk used as the interactive device. More
specifically, this investigation aimed to describe the classroom interactions in EFL classroom
setting in a private junior high school Salatiga.
Furthermore, the result of this study could be used by English teachers as a reference for
the betterment of teaching. This study may also become the inspiration for other research on
classroom interaction. From this study, many other concerns about classroom interaction could
emerge which may lead to other studies that would bring about improvement in Indonesian
education.
The Study
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This study adopted a descriptive method because it attempted to investigate a
phenomenon that happened in classroom. According to Shuttleworth (2008), descriptive research
design is a systematic method which involves observation and description about behavior or
performance of a subject based on the real data without any manipulation. Hence, descriptive
research method was appropriate to be used in this study since the aim of this study was to
examine the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction to the students in English classes
in a private junior high school in Salatiga.
The participants in this study were two English teachers who taught seventh and eighth
graders students in a private junior high school in Salatiga and students from eight classes, four
classes of seventh grade and 4 classes of eighth grade. The teachers have taught English in the
school for more than two years. The students have learned English since they were in elementary
school. The technique for choosing participants in this study was a sample of convenience
(McKay, 2006, in Zacharias, 2011). This private junior high school was selected because I had
taught English in the school for my teaching practicum, so it was possible for me to ask the
permission to observe the teaching and learning process in the school.
A checklist for observation was used for the research instrument of this study. It was used
to identify the presence of specific behaviors while observing the teachers‟ teacher talk in the
interaction occurred in the classroom.
To achieve the aim of the study which is to investigate the pattern of teachers‟ teacher
talk in their interaction to the students in English classrooms in a private junior high school,
observations were conducted for the data collection. Observation is a way of gathering data by
watching behavior or events in natural settings. This study used direct observation to investigate
the interactions that occurred in the classrooms. According to Taylor-Powell (1996), direct
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observation is implemented for observing a process that is happening, such as interactions,
processes, and behavior as they occur. Classroom interactions are observed in the process while
it is happening. Therefore, eight observations were conducted for this research. The teachers‟ talk
and interaction were video recorded and audio taped.
The recordings from the observations were transcribed and analyzed. Clean transcription
was used to limit the time for the transcribing and to only focus on the content of the observation
needed for this study. Clean transcription “does not provide any extra information as to the
manner in which the content is communicated” (Zacharias, 2011). After the transcribing have
finished, the transcription were analyzed by coding. Teachers‟ utterances were analyzed to
decide in what categories it belonged to. The categorization was based on the framework of
teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) by adopting the teachers‟ initiation techniques
and adapting some follow-up techniques. After the categorization, the result and finding of this
study were presented.
Findings and Discussion
Since this study only focused on the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction
with the students in English classrooms, the result of this study could be explained in two main
headings; teachers‟ initiation techniques and teachers‟ follow-up techniques. The initiation
techniques were adopted from the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010)
which have question, invitation, and direction techniques. The follow-up techniques were
adapted from some techniques proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) in the framework of teacher
talk.
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The observations had been done in two different grades in the school, seventh and eighth
grade. It means that the topics that were taught were different. In the seventh grade, the topic was
about descriptive text. The teacher reviewed the adjectives and noun phrases in the beginning of
the lesson before starting the lesson about descriptive text. Pictures on the slide shows were used
to refresh students‟ memories about the adjectives. And in the eighth grade, some classes were
learning about perfect tense, and some classes were learning about simple past and past
continuous tense.
Teachers’ initiation techniques
Based on the observations done in some English classes in the school, some techniques
that the English teachers used to initiate the interactions in the classroom were identified.
1.
Question
The teachers usually initiated the interaction in the class with questions.
1)
T:
Kalian akantes yang keduaharisabtu. Mari kita lihat2 dulu yang kemarin.
I will show some pictures and please tell me the adjectives.
Ss:
Arrogant.
T:
What is arrogant?
Ss:
Sombong.
(Observation 4)
From the excerpt above, the teacher first showed a picture of man in such an expression
showing the adjective, and asked the students to guess what the picture was. The students were
able to guess the adjective for the picture. Therefore, the teacher used the question to make sure
that the students knew the meaning of the adjective arrogant in Bahasa Indonesia.
Referring to the type of questions, the type of question in the transcription above belongs
to display question. Display question is a question which the answer is already known by the
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teacher for checking students‟ comprehension, confirmation, or getting students‟ clarification
(Lynch in David, 2007). So, in this case, the teacher wanted to check students‟ comprehension
about the meaning of the adjective arrogant in Bahasa Indonesia.
Other excerpt from the transcription showing the type of question used by the teacher in
classroom is;
2)
T:
Hariinikitaakanmembuatsebuah
text,
tentangsiapanantisayakasihgambarnya.
creating
a
descriptive
text,
Kira-kiragampanggamembuat
descriptive text itu?
Ss:
Susah.
T:
Susah-susahgampang
(Observation 4)
The first question in the excerpt above was used in order to know students‟ opinion about
descriptive text. This type of question is a kind of referential question because the answer of the
question is about opinion that the teacher may not know. According to Lynch (cited in David,
2007), referential question is a question that asks for information that the teacher does not know.
Other example of referential question is shown in the excerpt 3 below.
3)
T:
Yesterday, I wanted you to do some exercises from page 83.
Kemarinsayaadatugas yang harusdiselesaikan, sehingga kalian adatugas
yang harusdikerjakan. 83-86 ya? Kita membahasnyasekarang.Have you
ever done extreme sport? Sudahpernahmelakukanolah raga yang ekstrim?
Ss:
Sudah.
T:
What example?
(Observation 6)
In this case, the topic was about extreme sport and perfect tense. The teacher introduced
the topic by asking the referential question, Have you ever done extreme sport?
Sudahpernahmelakukanolah raga yang ekstrim? By asking the question, the students could share
their experience whether they had done the extreme sport or not.
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2.
Invitation
Sometimes, the teachers asked the students to participate in the interaction, like
answering the questions and giving the answers of the tasks. The example of invitation
utterances used by the teachers in the school that I observed can be seen in the excerpts
below.
4)
T:
Sambillatihanya, 3 saja. Silakanpilihtigahal yang kamumau. Choose 3 out
of 5.
T:
Anyone who wants to do the picture can come forward. What is noun
phrase? Don’t forget the rule.
(Observation 7)
In the excerpt 4, the teacher invited the students to answer the tasks being given in the
class and write the answer on the board. This invitation was meant to give opportunities for the
students to build their self-confident and active participation by responding the invitation. The
teacher said anyone which means that the invitation was opened to whoever wanted to
participate. Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) suggested that invitation is better used in initiating interaction
in classroom since it is more inspiring, respecting, and encouraging students to be more focused,
feel respected, become more confident, and participate actively in the class‟ discussion.
The excerpt below shows the other invitation found in the observation.
5)
T:
He
is
siapa?
Peter
Jade
Hernandez.
Siapa
yang
maumelanjutkankalimatkedua?
Setelahdisebutkanpembukaannyakitabisamulaidengannamalengkapdari
Bruno Mars. Siapa yang maumembantusaya? Pekerjaannyajugaboleh.
Siapamaumencoba?
T:
Namaasliapa?
T:
Real name atau complete.
T:
Yasamakan. O iya, betul. Real name, siapamaumencoba? Satukalimatsaja,
salahgaapa-apa. Help me, ya. Maju-maju.
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(Observation 4)
In this case, the teacher invited the students to continue writing a paragraph of descriptive
text. The teacher used the question Siapa yang maumembantusaya? (Who wants to help me?), so
that the students would come forward continuing writing the paragraph in order to help their
teacher. It was not merely ask them to do the exercise, but the teacher invited them gently
without any force. The teacher also encouraged the students to try no matter their answer were
correct or incorrect. It can be seen in the utterance Siapamaumencoba? Satukalimatsaja,
salahgaapa-apa. Help me, ya. Maju-maju.(Who wants to try? One sentence only, wrong answer
is okay. Help me. Come forward). This kind of encouragement is really good to remove students‟
anxiety to give their participation in classroom. The students will think that it is okay to come
and give their answer even if they are not sure it is correct or not. The point is that the students
have the willing to participate and practice.
3.
Direction
The next technique used by the teacher to initiate interaction in the classroom was
through direction. The following excerpt shows a little interaction between the teacher and the
students.
6)
T:
Okay, sekarangdikerjakan. Diubahdulu. Jadipertama to fall in menjadi
fell in. Okay anak-anakdibacadulusemuaya. Let’s read together repeat
after me. To fall in.
Ss:
To fall in.
T:
Fell in.
Ss:
Fell in.
(Observation 1)
In the excerpt 6 above, the teacher asked the students to repeat after her. It means that the
teacher was giving an instruction as the direction for what the students should do. Direction
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means an authoritative direction to be obeyed, an order from the teacher in this paper
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010).
7)
T:
Bagussemua,
itutidaksayamasukan.
Nantikegiatanhariini
yang
akansayamasukan. Okay, noun phrase. Try to make five noun phrases
here.
T:
Ya, lima-limanya, karenainipentingbuat UTS besok.
T:
Okay,
open
your
book and
start
making
your
noun
phrase.
Masihingeturutannya?
T:
Okay, number one? Wika number 2, Michael number 3, Yohanes number
4, kamunomer 5. Yang lainnantidulu.
(Observation 2)
The utterances in the transcription above shows the interaction between teacher and the
students when the teacher was giving the direction for the students to make five noun phrases
based on the pictures shown in the slide show. This strategy shows the teachers‟ effort to
encourage students to participate in the discussion. The teacher tended to direct the students to
participate in the discussion by calling their names to answer the exercises.
Teachers’ follow-up techniques
In the follow-ups, the teacher gave some feedback regarding to the responses that the
students gave from the initiation that the teacher had done before. By adapting some follow-up
techniques from the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010), this study
found some follow-up strategies used by the teachers in the classroom.
1.
Repetition
This technique was adapted from commenting techniques as the follow-up of the correct
answers in the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010). The
purposes of the commenting technique are to encourage the student giving the answer,
17
and sometimes to inform other students about what is given by their peers
Yanfen&Yuqin (2010). This kind of technique was found in the observation, the teacher
tended to repeat the answers that the students gave as the response of the questions asked
by the teacher in class discussion.
8)
T:
Brunette, red hair. So there will be five questions out of this thing. Ada 5
dariinitadi. Let’s see other five questions. Antonym.
Ss:
Long, short.
T:
Long and short.
Ss:
Big, small
T:
Big, small.
(Observation 7)
`The excerpt above shows the situation where the teacher was using repetition as the
follow-up from the response that the students‟ gave. The teacher showed pictures on the slide
show about antonyms and asked the students to guess what adjectives that were shown in the
pictures. The students mentioned the adjectives with the antonyms. As the follow-up from the
responses, the teacher repeated the adjectives after the students. Through the repetition, the
teacher was giving feedback toward the students‟ answers indicating that their answers were
already correct. The teacher also emphasized the pronunciation of the adjectives by repeating
them after the students. This repetition strategy is needed for helping the students improve their
pronunciation.
Other example can be seen in the following excerpt.
9)
T:
Let’s go to the number 5. Nikita. Belum? Artinyaapapertanyaannya? What
can people use to go to the shop?
Ss:
Apa yang bisadigunakanuntukpergiketokoitu?
T:
Apa yang bisadipakai?
Ss:
Bicycle and motorcycle.
18
T:
Bicycle and motorcycle. Karenajalannyasempit, we can not use car.
Helicopter. Next, number 6, Arlin.
S1:
People can buy, sell, and change things.
T:
Ya, buy, sell, exchange. Membeli, menjual, danmenukar.
(Observation 8)
In this case, the teacher repeated the answers given by the teacher to give more feedback
such as explanation and translation. The first one, the teacher gave additional explanation about
the reason why people can only used bicycle and motorcycle to go to the shop was because the
street was narrow. This explanation might be implicated in the passage, but some students might
not know about it. So, it is good for the teacher to do the repetition to deepen students‟
understanding about the task or material being taught. The second repetition was followed by
translation. The teacher translated the English words into the students‟ first language, Bahasa
Indonesia, to anticipate if there were students who forgot the meaning of the verbs buy, sell, and
exchange. By doing this, the teacher was indirectly reminding students about the vocabulary they
have learned before.
2.
Correction
Correction is very important feedback in the interaction that happens between teacher and
students. This technique adapted the criticizing technique to incorrect answer in the teacher talk
framework discussed earlier.From the observation, it could be seen that the teachers gave
correction to the errors or mistakes that the students made in their responses directly and
indirectly.
10)
T:
Yes, generous dermawan. How about this one?
Ss:
/hanest/
T:
We say it as /Ʌn3st/ not /hanest/. Repeat after me / Ʌn3st /
(Observation 4)
19
In the excerpt above, the teacher was giving the error correction directly. The teacher
immediately corrected students‟ mispronouncing the adjective „honest‟.
The following excerpt shows different correcting techniques used by the teacher.
11)
T:
Sebentar,
Dylan
mengatakan
when
he
fall
in
ya,
tapi
yang
sayamintadiperhatikanverbnyaya. Betulkah fall in?
Ss:
Salah.
T:
Harusnya? When? Depan past continuous makanbelakangnya simple past.
Ada
duakejadianterjadipadawaktubersamaan.Tapikitamelihatbahwaini
yang satulebih lama dan yang satulebihsingkat.Atausatulebihsingkatdan
yang lainnyalebih lama. So, what is the right answer? Fell into? The
ground.
(Observation 3)
In this case, the teacher was not immediately correcting the error produced by the
students. Instead, the teacher asked the students whether the answer was correct or not. This
technique is called elicitation. Elicitation is a correction technique that prompts the learner to
self-correct through request for reformulations of an ill-formed utterance, the use of open
questions, or use of strategic pauses to allow a learner to complete an utterance (Ajideh, P.
&FareedAghdam, E., 2012). This correction technique stimulated students‟ critical thinking
since they are asked to correct their own mistake. From the excerpt above, the teacher at first
signaled the students that there was an error in the answer. Then, the teacher gave a brief
explanation about the using of simple past and past continuous. So, the teacher was not giving
the correct answer immediately, but asked the students to reformulate the answer. At the end, the
students were able to correct their own error with the teacher‟s help. The writer thinks that this
elicitation technique is good as the corrective feedback in the interaction. It enhances students‟
ability to analyze the answers by themselves that will help them reducing the error in the next
task.
20
3.
Clarification
In the follow-up stage, it is important for the teacher to give clarification in the form of
explanation about the responses that the students have given. Clarification was adapted from the
informing technique in the teacher talk framework. However, the informing technique is used as
the follow-up for incorrect answers, whereas clarification can be used for both correct and
incorrect answers because clarification is an explanation given by the teachers to deepen
students‟ understanding about the lesson. The following excerpts show the clarifications made by
the teachers during the discussion in the class.
12)
T:
Pale skin? Fair skin itukulitnyatidakhitamtidakterlaluputih, lebihkeputih.
Fair skin itusamadengan white skin. Pale itu? Pucat.
(Observation 4)
13)
T:
Kalo kalian sudahpunyaidenyaitugampang. Remember, descriptive text
ituapa?
T:
Jadi descriptive text ituintinya describe particular person, place, or things
in detail. Jadimendeskripsikanseseorang, bendatertentusecara detail.
MisalnyasayamendeskripsikanDanang,
rambutnyalurus,
matanyasipit,
hidungnyasedengan. Semuanya detail, tapiapaharussemuanya? Tidak,
ygpentingaja.Jadi, sesuatu yang khusus.
(Observation 2)
Excerpt 12 indicates the feedback that the teacher gave toward the question asked by one
of the students. The student asked about the difference between fair skin and pale skin. The
teacher then answered the question with a brief explanation about fair skin in the students‟ first
language. The clarification was used to prevent misinterpretation that the students have about fair
skin and pale skin. Excerpt 13 shows that the teacher was giving a clarification about the point of
descriptive text that the students should remember. The teacher also gave the explanation in
students‟ first language to help them understand easily. The explanation was followed by
21
examples of the things that can be described in descriptive text. By giving examples, the teacher
tried to make the explanation become more comprehensible for the students. Therefore,
clarification is needed as the follow-up techniques in the interaction between teacher and
students since teacher‟s feedback plays an important part in elucidating and building on the ideas
that the students express in their responses, and in developing a meaningful conversation
between teacher and the whole class (Cullen, 2002).
4.
Acknowledgement
This technique was adopted from the follow-up techniques for correct answers in the
framework of teacher talk. Acknowledgment is one of the feedbacks that often appear in the
follow-up. The praises like „very good‟, „good, and thank you‟ were given by the teacher to show
the appreciation of the responses that the students have given. One example of the
acknowledgements can be seen in the excerpt below.
14)
T:
Sempit narrow, lebar?
Ss:
Wide.
T:
Wide, very good. Ya.Sudah, sekarang let’s go to the main thing. Siapa
yang piketini?Tolongdihapuskan.
(Observation 4)
The excerpt above shows the acknowledgment given by teacher after the answer that the
student gave. The teacher first asked about the English of the word „lebar‟. As the appreciation of
the correct answer from the students, the teacher said „very good‟. The following excerpt
presents different type of acknowledgment given by the teacher.
15)
T:
Perhatikan di sini, inicontohkalimat yang baik. Ja didiatidakmengulangi.
Kalo yang lain kan he is he is he is, diapake he has. He has curly black
hair. Curly masuk shape, black masuk color, noun. Next sentence, about
nose?
(Observation 2)
22
In the excerpt 15, it can be seen that the teacher was praising the answer from on of the
students who had participated in the class discussion. The teacher informed the class that the
answer was the example of a good sentence. It showed the acknowledgment in the different
form. Acknowledgement is a brief feedback from the teacher in response to correct answers
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010). By giving acknowledgment, the teacher encourages the students to
participate more in the class discussion or any interaction in class. The students will feel happy if
the teacher appreciates their effort in participating in the class discussion, so it will make their
desire to participate increasing.
Conclusion and Recommendation
This study aimed to investigate the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interactions to
the students in English classrooms in a junior high school in Salatiga. The findings of this study
show that the pattern of the teachers‟ teacher talk followed the IF (Initiation - Follow-up) pattern.
Focusing only on the teachers‟ role in developing interaction in classroom, this study found some
initiation and follow-up strategies used by the teachers in the interaction. The teachers tended to
use question, invitation, and direction to initiate the interaction. As the follow-up strategies, the
teachers often used repetition, correction, clarification, and acknowledgement as the feedbacks
from the responses given by the students. These techniques were adapted and adopted from the
framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010).
In relation to interaction, both initiation and follow-up strategies done by the teachers
were good to increase active participations from the students in the class discussion. However, it
only create teacher – students interactions which would limit the ability of the students to interact
with their classmates. Therefore, as the recommendation of this study, it would be better if the
23
teachers start to develop student – student interaction through group discussion or group works.
Group works will give more opportunities to the peers to share experiences and insights. It can
promote better interaction because both students can share knowledge to solve a problem or
complete a task through communication (Khan, 2009).
The limitation of this study is on the context where the data were collected. Since the
observation were only done in one of the junior high school in Salatiga, the data gathered were
also restricted to the interaction happened in the school with the small number of participants.
Therefore, the further research in the interaction in English classroom in Salatiga can be
conducted in more schools in Salatiga to explore more pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in
developing interaction with the students.
24
References
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and
individual
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26
Evaluation
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Yanfen, L., &Yuqin, Z. (2010).A study of teacher talk in interactions in English classes. Chinese
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27
Acknowledgements
I wish to express sincere appreciation to Prof. Dr. GustiAstika, M.A and Athriyana S.
Pattiwael, M.Hum for their huge reserve of patience and knowledge in helping me finish my
thesis. This thesis would never have been completed without the encouragement and devotion of
my family and friends. So, I would like to thank my father, mother, and brothers who always
gave the supports for me. Big thanks to all my friends, especially Niners, for all the sharing and
togetherness that helped me get through the last hard days in ED. Also, massive thanks to my
bestfriend, BagusRaditya, who was never tired to support and help me in writing my thesis. And
the last but not least, I would not forget to express my greatest gratitude to the Almighty God,
Allah S.W.T for all the blessings because without the blessings I would never be able to finished
my study. Thank you.
28
Appendix
Sample of Observation Transcript
T: What is so special about this picture? Inihanya review saja. What‟s that?
Ss: Dimple
T: Dimple. And what is that?
Ss: Mustache. Beard.
T: How about this thing?
Ss: Mustache
T: And this one?
Ss: Fringe.
T: Fringe.
Ss: Nostril.
T: Ya, nostril, good.
Ss: Height.
T: You can say that this one is tall, and this one is short, and the last one is medium.
Ss: Tall
T: Tall, short, and?
Ss: Medium
T: Medium, right. How to say kurus in English?
Ss: Slim, slender, thin.
T: Slim, slender, thin, skinny. Good. How to say gemuk?
Ss: Fat, overweight, big body
T: Big body, fat, overweight, bonny. Don‟t forget the first two are ruder than the last two.
Jadilebihkasaritu yang paling atasduaitu.Artinyasamasih. Before after, she is?
Ss: Fat
T: Fat. She is?
Ss: Skinny
T: Skinny or thin, the same person.Type of eyes. How to say people who
Ss: Slanting
T: Slanting, sipit. Big or wide.
Ss: Big
T: Type of skin. Asian people usually have light brown skin.
Ss: Black
T: Dark, don‟t say black. White or fair are the same. Putihatau fair itusama.Kalopucatituapa?
Ss: Pale
T: Ya, don‟t forget. Next, type of hair, the first picture
Ss: Long
T: Long. She has long and straight, adawarnanya black. Berartiurutannya?She has long straight
black hair. Noun phrase. How about this man? This man or this girl? She has
Ss: short curly black hair.
T: The left?
Ss: No hair.
T: No hair or bald. How about this girl?
29
Ss: Medium
T: Medium. She has medium length, what else? Blonde straight hair. How about this girl?
Ss: Curly. Wavy
T: Curly. Curly atau wavy?Curly yakarenakeritingini.Warnanya?
Ss: Red head
T: It‟s more brunette or red. And the next one he has?
Ss: Short
T: Short. She is blon
School in Salatiga
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
DwinaRinjaniPutri
112009078
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i
Investigating Teacher Talk in the Classroom Interaction at a Junior High
School in Salatiga
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
DwinaRinjaniPutri
112009078
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i
ii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. DwinaRinjaniPutri and Prof. Dr. GustiAstika, MA
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, SatyaWacana University, Salatiga.
DwinaRinjaniPutri: (
)
iii
iv
Investigating Teacher Talk in the Interaction to the Students in
English Classrooms at a Junior High School in Salatiga
DwinaRinjaniPutri
SatyaWacana Christian University, Salatiga
Abstract
Teacher talk holds an essential part in teaching and learning process, especially in
teaching and learning language, as the interactive devices that will encourage more interactions
between teachers and students in the classroom. Interaction is the important factor in the success
of teaching and learning process. This study was conducted to investigate teachers‟ teacher talk
in their interactions to the students that happened in English classrooms at a junior high school in
Salatiga. Descriptive method was adopted for this study. The participants of this study were two
English teachers and students from eight classes. The data were collected from observations in
eight English classes in the school. The result of this study found some teachers‟ initiation and
follow-up strategies in developing the interaction in classroom.
Key Words:teacher talk, initiation strategies, follow-up strategies, classroom interaction.
Introduction
Background of the Study
As a lingua franca or language of international communication, English is seen as a
language that needs to be mastered especially by people in non English speaking countries.
According to Gilby (2011), English is the official or joint official language in over 75 countries
1
worldwide and is therefore recognized as the language of international communication. The use
of English in many international businesses and technologies have encouraged many people from
all over the world, whose first language is not English, to learn English in order to be able to take
part in the globalization era. As a result, the demand of teaching English as a foreign language
(TEFL) and or teaching English as a second language (TESL) is increasing.
In Indonesia, English is seen as the most important language to be taught as a foreign
language (EFL), though it is not used as the language of the society (Simatupang, 1999: 64 in
Lauder, 2008). English is an important subject that has to be taught in Indonesia, from
kindergarten to university. Some schools use English as the medium of instruction in teaching
and learning. English is tested in the National Examination which means that English is seen as
the essential subject which determines students‟ graduation. Because of this reason, many
innovations have been tried out for the success of learning English in Indonesia. One example is
the Communicative Approach which aims to stimulate students‟ active participation in learning
English (Li-ping, 2012).
In order to stimulate active participation in classroom, English teachers have
responsibilities to create interaction in the classroom. According to Ellis (1985), the quality of
interaction is thought to have a significant influence on learning process (cited in
Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012). Khan (2009) also states that language proficiency can be
achieved through interaction. So, classroom setting where English is taught plays a big role in
creating a meaningful teaching and learning process, especially classroom interaction that
happens in it. There are seven types of classroom interactions proposed by Malamah-Thomas
(1987, as cited in Mingzhi, 2005); teacher speaks to the whole class, teacher speaks to an
individual student, teacher speaks to a group of students, student speaks to teacher, student
2
speaks to other student (classmate), student speaks to group members, and student speaks to the
whole class. Although there are many kinds of interactions, interaction in the classroom is mostly
initiated by the teacher. So, it can be said that classroom interaction is inseparable with teacher
talk, especially in Indonesia where teachers are still the most authoritative figures in class to
control the classroom.
Teacher talk is the language used mostly in the classroom to give directions, explain
activities and check students‟ understanding (Sinclair & Brazil, 1982, as cited in Zhang, 2012).
Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) believe that teacher talk holds a very significant role in the teaching
process as interactive devices that will encourage more interactions between teachers and
students in the classroom. Therefore, following the IRF interactive pattern proposed by Sinclair
& Brazil(1982) which represent initiation from the teacher (I), response from the students (R),
and follow-up from the teacher (F), this study focused on the initiation and follow-up pattern
since both patterns are realized through teacher talk that is usually applied by teachers in
establishing interaction in classroom. More specifically, this study aimed to investigate the
pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction to the students in English classrooms in one
private junior high school in Salatiga.
LiteratureReview
Classroom interaction is an important point where the communication between teachers
and learners takes place. Khan (2009) states that interaction in language class has a great
influence on learning. It seems that classroom interaction is the core element of teaching and
learning process which means that without interaction there is no teaching and learning process.
However, in the traditional method of teaching and learning in Indonesia, which was really
3
teacher-centered, interactions in classroom was less likely to occur. The teacher only gave
explanation and the students were asked to be silent and pay attention to the explanation. This
kind of interaction seems discouraging students‟ ability to use the language, especially in
learning foreign language. Therefore, they become less proficient in problem solving, unable to
initiate in order to learn something new, unable to cooperate with other peers, and unable to
express their opinions or feeling even though they have a huge respect for others (Schmuck and
Schmuck, 2001, as cited in Matsumoto, 2008).
Interaction and teacher talk are two important things in teaching and learning process that
can not be separated. Tsui (1995) as cited in Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) points out that the
development and success of a class depends on the degree of the interactions between the teacher
and students. And the occurrence of interaction is affected directly by the ways of teacher talk
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010). Teacher talk is an interactive device to implement the teaching plan,
teacher talk is very important for both classroom teaching organization and students‟ language
learning in the process of foreign language learning and second language acquisition (Xiao-hui,
2010). In other words, Lin (2005) added that “a good teacher talk is an interactional input with
modifications in the classroom and aims to facilitate learners‟ comprehension in the language
acquisition process”.
Many researchers believe that the most frequently used interactive pattern in classroom is
the IRF models proposed by Sinclair and Brazil (1982). The explanation of this model is that in
classroom interaction, there are initiations from the teacher in giving questions, and then the
students participate in answering the questions as their response to the questions being asked,
and end with feedback from the teacher. Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) propose the framework of
teacher talk which can be seen in the table below.
4
Tabel 1.Framework of teacher talk (Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010)
Questioning
Initiation
Invitation
Direction
Inform
Prompt
Interaction
To no and incorrect
answer
Follow-up
Encouragement
Criticizing
Ignoring
To correct answer
Acknowledgement
Comment
The framework follows the IRF (Initiation Response Follow-up), but it only focuses on
the teacher talk in developing interaction in classroom which are through initiation and follow-up
(IF). Question, invitation, and direction techniques are included in the initiation stage of the
teacher talk. The follow-up stage are divided into two parts which are follow-up to no and
incorrect answers and follow-up to correct answers. Follow-up to no and incorrect answer has
some techniques, such as; informing, prompting, encouraging, criticizing, and ignoring
techniques. Acknowledgement and comment techniques are the techniques of follow-up to
correct answer.
Teachers play a big role in encouraging students to be willing to participate through
asking some questions. Thus, questioning technique is seen as the effective way to initiate
students‟ participation that will lead to interaction between teacher and students. Xiao-hui (2010)
states that in EFL context, to construct appropriate questioning technique, teachers should
provide an information gap between the teacher and the students related to a topic that is relevant
5
to the students‟ life that can arouse their interests and require a stage of thinking that extends
students‟ intelligence. Besides, questions with information gap will give chances for students to
discuss life issues and share the individuals‟ perspectives of the issues.Kalantari (2009) adds that
questioning strategies is one of the influential strategies in creating classroom interaction.
Questioning strategy can encourage foreign learners to initiate language and develop interaction
with the teacher by answering the teacher‟s questions. There are two types of questions usually
used by teachers to develop interaction which are display questions (the teacher already knows
the answers) and referential questions (the teacher doesn‟t know the answers). Referential
questions are considered to be more effective to encourage students to think more and produce
more. Low referential question may indicate the students‟ lack of English knowledge,
comprehension, and proficiency of the material (Murdoch, 1999).
In the follow-up pattern, the teachers give the feedback toward students‟ responses.
Xiao-hui (2010) stated that feedback is the response to the students‟ efforts to communicate,
including the notion of error correction, which has power to influence motivation. It means that
through feedback, the teacher can motivate the students to participate in classroom interaction. In
this interaction, the teacher‟s feedback plays an important part in elucidating and building on the
ideas that the students express in their responses, and in developing a meaningful conversation
between teacher and the whole class (Cullen, 2002). So, after the initiation in building interaction
through questioning strategy, the teacher will give feedback to the answers that the students give
as their response to the questions. This kind of interaction is very common to occur in classroom
situation. It seems that the teacher is always the one who initiates the interaction.
In addition, there are some activities that can be implemented to encourage interaction in
classroom. Group work is one of the activities that can be used in enhancing interaction in
6
classroom. Khan (2009) believes that group work helps teacher to reduce the teacher-centered
style and increases the opportunity for students to participate in classroom interaction. Group
will also provide opportunity to the peers to share experiences and insights. He added that pair
activities promote better interaction because both students can share knowledge to solve a
problem or complete a task through communication (Khan, 2009). Group work can also provide
the effective interaction in classroom where the learners can construct communication and
negotiation with their peers.
Since classroom study is important in English teaching and learning, many researchers
have done many studies in this field. Observation done by Murdoch (1999) on classroom
interaction in language classes in Korean University found that the teacher was more likely to
ask display question and give feedback to the students. However, some referential questions also
appeared in teacher-student interaction, in particular, the teacher only asked referential question
to individual not to the whole class. So, it seems that display questions that require yes/no
answers and general knowledge that the teacher has already known is more popular in Korea
than referential questions that are believed can help students to explore more knowledge and
practice the target language more. In contrast, a direct observation that David (2007) has done in
six random secondary schools in Oyo and Osun state revealed that referential questions created
less interaction compared to display questions even though the frequency of display questions
use in the classroom is less than referential questions use. This fact proves that referential
questions are not always the most effective strategies in building interaction, yet it depends on
the situation of the classroom and the students.
In China, cultural tradition has a great influence on the relationship among the teachers
and students. The relationship among the teachers and students is much more hierarchical. So,
7
there is such a distance between teacher and students that makes a little or almost never
interaction between teacher and student. The authority of controlling the classroom is on the
teachers‟ hand (Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012). This kind of situation is really teacher-centered
which somehow discouraging students to get involved in classroom interaction.Pishghadam and
Torghabeh (2009) found that Iranian classes are generally teacher-centered and the students are
given less opportunity to express themselves. The students are seldom asking questions because
they are afraid of making mistake. It is clear that those students get minimum exposure to
practice the target language they learn for communication because they have only little chance to
“speak up” in class.
Fillmore (cited Masouleh&Jooneghani, 2012) has investigated that classroom interaction
influences the rate of SLA. She compared the progress of the sixty L2 learners in different
classrooms and found that neither the difference in classroom work nor the difference in the type
of teaching gave influences in the success of language learning. The students will gain more
successful in learning if they are given many opportunities to involve in interaction through
communication. It strengthens the point that communication in classroom as the type of
interaction is needed to the success in language learning.
In relation to the role of communication as the type of interaction, research on classroom
interaction proposed that meaningful conversation and negotiation between teacher-student and
student-students in class will make the input comprehensible (Long, 1983, as cited in Mingzhi,
2008). Therefore, communication engaged in classroom not only creates interaction among
students and teacher, but also makes comprehensive input toward the learning process.
Other findings show that in senior high school in Pekanbaru, interaction in the classroom
is developed through teacher talk where the teacher is the one who always initiates the
8
interaction (Fauziah, 2009). Actually, this is also related to the culture that Indonesia has. Similar
to Japanese students who are really obedient to the teachers (Matsumoto, 2008), Indonesian
students traditionally were also taught to really respect their teacher. It is good to be respectful,
but the point is that the perception of respect in here is students have to obey the teacher, and the
teacher is never making mistakes. It makes almost no interaction between teacher and students.
The interaction happened is just between the teacher and the whole class. The students were
likely to be silent and reluctant to participate in class because the education system in the past
gave less opportunity for the students to share their opinion or to “speak up”.
Nowadays, all of educators concern to improve learners ability to communicate with
others, especially in learning language. The more we use the language, the more proficient we
are in that language. So, in order to create successful language learning, the learners should be
exposed to use the language frequently. One way to get students exposed to the language is
through asking them to communicate in the target language. Nonetheless, using the language that
is not the language of the society may not be easy. Many EFL students may feel uncomfortable
communicating using English. Because of that reason, it is the job of EFL teachers to motivate
the students to be willing to start using English in conversation maybe from the interaction in
classroom before going out to the society. The result of research on classroom interaction in
Iranian EFL schools indicates that teacher used self-disclosure strategy to motivate students to
participate more in discussions that will improve their speaking ability (Pishghadam and
Torghabeh, 2009). Self-disclosure is used to reduce stress and anxiety that the students have, to
maximize individual security in class, to maintain a close relationship with the students, and to
provide appropriate models of teaching and learning for the students.
9
In addition, Aubrey (2010) in the past research believes that not only teachers who are
responsible for establishing interaction in classroom, but students also have the role to be the
meaningful participants in EFL classrooms. In order to reach the goal of being significant
participants in the classroom, students have to be ready to interact with their mates, have low
anxiety to interact with their peers, be interested in the topic of the lesson, and understand the
teacher‟s idea and believe in her or his teaching method. Those aspects will help building
communicative interaction among the students and also between the teacher and the students in
classroom since both teachers and students are willing to communicate each other.
As explained above, many researches have been done to investigate the classroom
interactions happen in many schools‟ setting in Iran, Japan, and other countries. The researches
also show the significance of interaction in language classes for the achievement of the success
of language learning. However, a study of classroom interaction in Indonesia, particularly
Salatiga, is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the classroom interaction in EFL
classrooms setting in Salatiga related to teacher talk used as the interactive device. More
specifically, this investigation aimed to describe the classroom interactions in EFL classroom
setting in a private junior high school Salatiga.
Furthermore, the result of this study could be used by English teachers as a reference for
the betterment of teaching. This study may also become the inspiration for other research on
classroom interaction. From this study, many other concerns about classroom interaction could
emerge which may lead to other studies that would bring about improvement in Indonesian
education.
The Study
10
This study adopted a descriptive method because it attempted to investigate a
phenomenon that happened in classroom. According to Shuttleworth (2008), descriptive research
design is a systematic method which involves observation and description about behavior or
performance of a subject based on the real data without any manipulation. Hence, descriptive
research method was appropriate to be used in this study since the aim of this study was to
examine the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction to the students in English classes
in a private junior high school in Salatiga.
The participants in this study were two English teachers who taught seventh and eighth
graders students in a private junior high school in Salatiga and students from eight classes, four
classes of seventh grade and 4 classes of eighth grade. The teachers have taught English in the
school for more than two years. The students have learned English since they were in elementary
school. The technique for choosing participants in this study was a sample of convenience
(McKay, 2006, in Zacharias, 2011). This private junior high school was selected because I had
taught English in the school for my teaching practicum, so it was possible for me to ask the
permission to observe the teaching and learning process in the school.
A checklist for observation was used for the research instrument of this study. It was used
to identify the presence of specific behaviors while observing the teachers‟ teacher talk in the
interaction occurred in the classroom.
To achieve the aim of the study which is to investigate the pattern of teachers‟ teacher
talk in their interaction to the students in English classrooms in a private junior high school,
observations were conducted for the data collection. Observation is a way of gathering data by
watching behavior or events in natural settings. This study used direct observation to investigate
the interactions that occurred in the classrooms. According to Taylor-Powell (1996), direct
11
observation is implemented for observing a process that is happening, such as interactions,
processes, and behavior as they occur. Classroom interactions are observed in the process while
it is happening. Therefore, eight observations were conducted for this research. The teachers‟ talk
and interaction were video recorded and audio taped.
The recordings from the observations were transcribed and analyzed. Clean transcription
was used to limit the time for the transcribing and to only focus on the content of the observation
needed for this study. Clean transcription “does not provide any extra information as to the
manner in which the content is communicated” (Zacharias, 2011). After the transcribing have
finished, the transcription were analyzed by coding. Teachers‟ utterances were analyzed to
decide in what categories it belonged to. The categorization was based on the framework of
teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) by adopting the teachers‟ initiation techniques
and adapting some follow-up techniques. After the categorization, the result and finding of this
study were presented.
Findings and Discussion
Since this study only focused on the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interaction
with the students in English classrooms, the result of this study could be explained in two main
headings; teachers‟ initiation techniques and teachers‟ follow-up techniques. The initiation
techniques were adopted from the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010)
which have question, invitation, and direction techniques. The follow-up techniques were
adapted from some techniques proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) in the framework of teacher
talk.
12
The observations had been done in two different grades in the school, seventh and eighth
grade. It means that the topics that were taught were different. In the seventh grade, the topic was
about descriptive text. The teacher reviewed the adjectives and noun phrases in the beginning of
the lesson before starting the lesson about descriptive text. Pictures on the slide shows were used
to refresh students‟ memories about the adjectives. And in the eighth grade, some classes were
learning about perfect tense, and some classes were learning about simple past and past
continuous tense.
Teachers’ initiation techniques
Based on the observations done in some English classes in the school, some techniques
that the English teachers used to initiate the interactions in the classroom were identified.
1.
Question
The teachers usually initiated the interaction in the class with questions.
1)
T:
Kalian akantes yang keduaharisabtu. Mari kita lihat2 dulu yang kemarin.
I will show some pictures and please tell me the adjectives.
Ss:
Arrogant.
T:
What is arrogant?
Ss:
Sombong.
(Observation 4)
From the excerpt above, the teacher first showed a picture of man in such an expression
showing the adjective, and asked the students to guess what the picture was. The students were
able to guess the adjective for the picture. Therefore, the teacher used the question to make sure
that the students knew the meaning of the adjective arrogant in Bahasa Indonesia.
Referring to the type of questions, the type of question in the transcription above belongs
to display question. Display question is a question which the answer is already known by the
13
teacher for checking students‟ comprehension, confirmation, or getting students‟ clarification
(Lynch in David, 2007). So, in this case, the teacher wanted to check students‟ comprehension
about the meaning of the adjective arrogant in Bahasa Indonesia.
Other excerpt from the transcription showing the type of question used by the teacher in
classroom is;
2)
T:
Hariinikitaakanmembuatsebuah
text,
tentangsiapanantisayakasihgambarnya.
creating
a
descriptive
text,
Kira-kiragampanggamembuat
descriptive text itu?
Ss:
Susah.
T:
Susah-susahgampang
(Observation 4)
The first question in the excerpt above was used in order to know students‟ opinion about
descriptive text. This type of question is a kind of referential question because the answer of the
question is about opinion that the teacher may not know. According to Lynch (cited in David,
2007), referential question is a question that asks for information that the teacher does not know.
Other example of referential question is shown in the excerpt 3 below.
3)
T:
Yesterday, I wanted you to do some exercises from page 83.
Kemarinsayaadatugas yang harusdiselesaikan, sehingga kalian adatugas
yang harusdikerjakan. 83-86 ya? Kita membahasnyasekarang.Have you
ever done extreme sport? Sudahpernahmelakukanolah raga yang ekstrim?
Ss:
Sudah.
T:
What example?
(Observation 6)
In this case, the topic was about extreme sport and perfect tense. The teacher introduced
the topic by asking the referential question, Have you ever done extreme sport?
Sudahpernahmelakukanolah raga yang ekstrim? By asking the question, the students could share
their experience whether they had done the extreme sport or not.
14
2.
Invitation
Sometimes, the teachers asked the students to participate in the interaction, like
answering the questions and giving the answers of the tasks. The example of invitation
utterances used by the teachers in the school that I observed can be seen in the excerpts
below.
4)
T:
Sambillatihanya, 3 saja. Silakanpilihtigahal yang kamumau. Choose 3 out
of 5.
T:
Anyone who wants to do the picture can come forward. What is noun
phrase? Don’t forget the rule.
(Observation 7)
In the excerpt 4, the teacher invited the students to answer the tasks being given in the
class and write the answer on the board. This invitation was meant to give opportunities for the
students to build their self-confident and active participation by responding the invitation. The
teacher said anyone which means that the invitation was opened to whoever wanted to
participate. Yanfen&Yuqin (2010) suggested that invitation is better used in initiating interaction
in classroom since it is more inspiring, respecting, and encouraging students to be more focused,
feel respected, become more confident, and participate actively in the class‟ discussion.
The excerpt below shows the other invitation found in the observation.
5)
T:
He
is
siapa?
Peter
Jade
Hernandez.
Siapa
yang
maumelanjutkankalimatkedua?
Setelahdisebutkanpembukaannyakitabisamulaidengannamalengkapdari
Bruno Mars. Siapa yang maumembantusaya? Pekerjaannyajugaboleh.
Siapamaumencoba?
T:
Namaasliapa?
T:
Real name atau complete.
T:
Yasamakan. O iya, betul. Real name, siapamaumencoba? Satukalimatsaja,
salahgaapa-apa. Help me, ya. Maju-maju.
15
(Observation 4)
In this case, the teacher invited the students to continue writing a paragraph of descriptive
text. The teacher used the question Siapa yang maumembantusaya? (Who wants to help me?), so
that the students would come forward continuing writing the paragraph in order to help their
teacher. It was not merely ask them to do the exercise, but the teacher invited them gently
without any force. The teacher also encouraged the students to try no matter their answer were
correct or incorrect. It can be seen in the utterance Siapamaumencoba? Satukalimatsaja,
salahgaapa-apa. Help me, ya. Maju-maju.(Who wants to try? One sentence only, wrong answer
is okay. Help me. Come forward). This kind of encouragement is really good to remove students‟
anxiety to give their participation in classroom. The students will think that it is okay to come
and give their answer even if they are not sure it is correct or not. The point is that the students
have the willing to participate and practice.
3.
Direction
The next technique used by the teacher to initiate interaction in the classroom was
through direction. The following excerpt shows a little interaction between the teacher and the
students.
6)
T:
Okay, sekarangdikerjakan. Diubahdulu. Jadipertama to fall in menjadi
fell in. Okay anak-anakdibacadulusemuaya. Let’s read together repeat
after me. To fall in.
Ss:
To fall in.
T:
Fell in.
Ss:
Fell in.
(Observation 1)
In the excerpt 6 above, the teacher asked the students to repeat after her. It means that the
teacher was giving an instruction as the direction for what the students should do. Direction
16
means an authoritative direction to be obeyed, an order from the teacher in this paper
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010).
7)
T:
Bagussemua,
itutidaksayamasukan.
Nantikegiatanhariini
yang
akansayamasukan. Okay, noun phrase. Try to make five noun phrases
here.
T:
Ya, lima-limanya, karenainipentingbuat UTS besok.
T:
Okay,
open
your
book and
start
making
your
noun
phrase.
Masihingeturutannya?
T:
Okay, number one? Wika number 2, Michael number 3, Yohanes number
4, kamunomer 5. Yang lainnantidulu.
(Observation 2)
The utterances in the transcription above shows the interaction between teacher and the
students when the teacher was giving the direction for the students to make five noun phrases
based on the pictures shown in the slide show. This strategy shows the teachers‟ effort to
encourage students to participate in the discussion. The teacher tended to direct the students to
participate in the discussion by calling their names to answer the exercises.
Teachers’ follow-up techniques
In the follow-ups, the teacher gave some feedback regarding to the responses that the
students gave from the initiation that the teacher had done before. By adapting some follow-up
techniques from the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010), this study
found some follow-up strategies used by the teachers in the classroom.
1.
Repetition
This technique was adapted from commenting techniques as the follow-up of the correct
answers in the framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010). The
purposes of the commenting technique are to encourage the student giving the answer,
17
and sometimes to inform other students about what is given by their peers
Yanfen&Yuqin (2010). This kind of technique was found in the observation, the teacher
tended to repeat the answers that the students gave as the response of the questions asked
by the teacher in class discussion.
8)
T:
Brunette, red hair. So there will be five questions out of this thing. Ada 5
dariinitadi. Let’s see other five questions. Antonym.
Ss:
Long, short.
T:
Long and short.
Ss:
Big, small
T:
Big, small.
(Observation 7)
`The excerpt above shows the situation where the teacher was using repetition as the
follow-up from the response that the students‟ gave. The teacher showed pictures on the slide
show about antonyms and asked the students to guess what adjectives that were shown in the
pictures. The students mentioned the adjectives with the antonyms. As the follow-up from the
responses, the teacher repeated the adjectives after the students. Through the repetition, the
teacher was giving feedback toward the students‟ answers indicating that their answers were
already correct. The teacher also emphasized the pronunciation of the adjectives by repeating
them after the students. This repetition strategy is needed for helping the students improve their
pronunciation.
Other example can be seen in the following excerpt.
9)
T:
Let’s go to the number 5. Nikita. Belum? Artinyaapapertanyaannya? What
can people use to go to the shop?
Ss:
Apa yang bisadigunakanuntukpergiketokoitu?
T:
Apa yang bisadipakai?
Ss:
Bicycle and motorcycle.
18
T:
Bicycle and motorcycle. Karenajalannyasempit, we can not use car.
Helicopter. Next, number 6, Arlin.
S1:
People can buy, sell, and change things.
T:
Ya, buy, sell, exchange. Membeli, menjual, danmenukar.
(Observation 8)
In this case, the teacher repeated the answers given by the teacher to give more feedback
such as explanation and translation. The first one, the teacher gave additional explanation about
the reason why people can only used bicycle and motorcycle to go to the shop was because the
street was narrow. This explanation might be implicated in the passage, but some students might
not know about it. So, it is good for the teacher to do the repetition to deepen students‟
understanding about the task or material being taught. The second repetition was followed by
translation. The teacher translated the English words into the students‟ first language, Bahasa
Indonesia, to anticipate if there were students who forgot the meaning of the verbs buy, sell, and
exchange. By doing this, the teacher was indirectly reminding students about the vocabulary they
have learned before.
2.
Correction
Correction is very important feedback in the interaction that happens between teacher and
students. This technique adapted the criticizing technique to incorrect answer in the teacher talk
framework discussed earlier.From the observation, it could be seen that the teachers gave
correction to the errors or mistakes that the students made in their responses directly and
indirectly.
10)
T:
Yes, generous dermawan. How about this one?
Ss:
/hanest/
T:
We say it as /Ʌn3st/ not /hanest/. Repeat after me / Ʌn3st /
(Observation 4)
19
In the excerpt above, the teacher was giving the error correction directly. The teacher
immediately corrected students‟ mispronouncing the adjective „honest‟.
The following excerpt shows different correcting techniques used by the teacher.
11)
T:
Sebentar,
Dylan
mengatakan
when
he
fall
in
ya,
tapi
yang
sayamintadiperhatikanverbnyaya. Betulkah fall in?
Ss:
Salah.
T:
Harusnya? When? Depan past continuous makanbelakangnya simple past.
Ada
duakejadianterjadipadawaktubersamaan.Tapikitamelihatbahwaini
yang satulebih lama dan yang satulebihsingkat.Atausatulebihsingkatdan
yang lainnyalebih lama. So, what is the right answer? Fell into? The
ground.
(Observation 3)
In this case, the teacher was not immediately correcting the error produced by the
students. Instead, the teacher asked the students whether the answer was correct or not. This
technique is called elicitation. Elicitation is a correction technique that prompts the learner to
self-correct through request for reformulations of an ill-formed utterance, the use of open
questions, or use of strategic pauses to allow a learner to complete an utterance (Ajideh, P.
&FareedAghdam, E., 2012). This correction technique stimulated students‟ critical thinking
since they are asked to correct their own mistake. From the excerpt above, the teacher at first
signaled the students that there was an error in the answer. Then, the teacher gave a brief
explanation about the using of simple past and past continuous. So, the teacher was not giving
the correct answer immediately, but asked the students to reformulate the answer. At the end, the
students were able to correct their own error with the teacher‟s help. The writer thinks that this
elicitation technique is good as the corrective feedback in the interaction. It enhances students‟
ability to analyze the answers by themselves that will help them reducing the error in the next
task.
20
3.
Clarification
In the follow-up stage, it is important for the teacher to give clarification in the form of
explanation about the responses that the students have given. Clarification was adapted from the
informing technique in the teacher talk framework. However, the informing technique is used as
the follow-up for incorrect answers, whereas clarification can be used for both correct and
incorrect answers because clarification is an explanation given by the teachers to deepen
students‟ understanding about the lesson. The following excerpts show the clarifications made by
the teachers during the discussion in the class.
12)
T:
Pale skin? Fair skin itukulitnyatidakhitamtidakterlaluputih, lebihkeputih.
Fair skin itusamadengan white skin. Pale itu? Pucat.
(Observation 4)
13)
T:
Kalo kalian sudahpunyaidenyaitugampang. Remember, descriptive text
ituapa?
T:
Jadi descriptive text ituintinya describe particular person, place, or things
in detail. Jadimendeskripsikanseseorang, bendatertentusecara detail.
MisalnyasayamendeskripsikanDanang,
rambutnyalurus,
matanyasipit,
hidungnyasedengan. Semuanya detail, tapiapaharussemuanya? Tidak,
ygpentingaja.Jadi, sesuatu yang khusus.
(Observation 2)
Excerpt 12 indicates the feedback that the teacher gave toward the question asked by one
of the students. The student asked about the difference between fair skin and pale skin. The
teacher then answered the question with a brief explanation about fair skin in the students‟ first
language. The clarification was used to prevent misinterpretation that the students have about fair
skin and pale skin. Excerpt 13 shows that the teacher was giving a clarification about the point of
descriptive text that the students should remember. The teacher also gave the explanation in
students‟ first language to help them understand easily. The explanation was followed by
21
examples of the things that can be described in descriptive text. By giving examples, the teacher
tried to make the explanation become more comprehensible for the students. Therefore,
clarification is needed as the follow-up techniques in the interaction between teacher and
students since teacher‟s feedback plays an important part in elucidating and building on the ideas
that the students express in their responses, and in developing a meaningful conversation
between teacher and the whole class (Cullen, 2002).
4.
Acknowledgement
This technique was adopted from the follow-up techniques for correct answers in the
framework of teacher talk. Acknowledgment is one of the feedbacks that often appear in the
follow-up. The praises like „very good‟, „good, and thank you‟ were given by the teacher to show
the appreciation of the responses that the students have given. One example of the
acknowledgements can be seen in the excerpt below.
14)
T:
Sempit narrow, lebar?
Ss:
Wide.
T:
Wide, very good. Ya.Sudah, sekarang let’s go to the main thing. Siapa
yang piketini?Tolongdihapuskan.
(Observation 4)
The excerpt above shows the acknowledgment given by teacher after the answer that the
student gave. The teacher first asked about the English of the word „lebar‟. As the appreciation of
the correct answer from the students, the teacher said „very good‟. The following excerpt
presents different type of acknowledgment given by the teacher.
15)
T:
Perhatikan di sini, inicontohkalimat yang baik. Ja didiatidakmengulangi.
Kalo yang lain kan he is he is he is, diapake he has. He has curly black
hair. Curly masuk shape, black masuk color, noun. Next sentence, about
nose?
(Observation 2)
22
In the excerpt 15, it can be seen that the teacher was praising the answer from on of the
students who had participated in the class discussion. The teacher informed the class that the
answer was the example of a good sentence. It showed the acknowledgment in the different
form. Acknowledgement is a brief feedback from the teacher in response to correct answers
(Yanfen&Yuqin, 2010). By giving acknowledgment, the teacher encourages the students to
participate more in the class discussion or any interaction in class. The students will feel happy if
the teacher appreciates their effort in participating in the class discussion, so it will make their
desire to participate increasing.
Conclusion and Recommendation
This study aimed to investigate the pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in their interactions to
the students in English classrooms in a junior high school in Salatiga. The findings of this study
show that the pattern of the teachers‟ teacher talk followed the IF (Initiation - Follow-up) pattern.
Focusing only on the teachers‟ role in developing interaction in classroom, this study found some
initiation and follow-up strategies used by the teachers in the interaction. The teachers tended to
use question, invitation, and direction to initiate the interaction. As the follow-up strategies, the
teachers often used repetition, correction, clarification, and acknowledgement as the feedbacks
from the responses given by the students. These techniques were adapted and adopted from the
framework of teacher talk proposed by Yanfen&Yuqin (2010).
In relation to interaction, both initiation and follow-up strategies done by the teachers
were good to increase active participations from the students in the class discussion. However, it
only create teacher – students interactions which would limit the ability of the students to interact
with their classmates. Therefore, as the recommendation of this study, it would be better if the
23
teachers start to develop student – student interaction through group discussion or group works.
Group works will give more opportunities to the peers to share experiences and insights. It can
promote better interaction because both students can share knowledge to solve a problem or
complete a task through communication (Khan, 2009).
The limitation of this study is on the context where the data were collected. Since the
observation were only done in one of the junior high school in Salatiga, the data gathered were
also restricted to the interaction happened in the school with the small number of participants.
Therefore, the further research in the interaction in English classroom in Salatiga can be
conducted in more schools in Salatiga to explore more pattern of teachers‟ teacher talk in
developing interaction with the students.
24
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Acknowledgements
I wish to express sincere appreciation to Prof. Dr. GustiAstika, M.A and Athriyana S.
Pattiwael, M.Hum for their huge reserve of patience and knowledge in helping me finish my
thesis. This thesis would never have been completed without the encouragement and devotion of
my family and friends. So, I would like to thank my father, mother, and brothers who always
gave the supports for me. Big thanks to all my friends, especially Niners, for all the sharing and
togetherness that helped me get through the last hard days in ED. Also, massive thanks to my
bestfriend, BagusRaditya, who was never tired to support and help me in writing my thesis. And
the last but not least, I would not forget to express my greatest gratitude to the Almighty God,
Allah S.W.T for all the blessings because without the blessings I would never be able to finished
my study. Thank you.
28
Appendix
Sample of Observation Transcript
T: What is so special about this picture? Inihanya review saja. What‟s that?
Ss: Dimple
T: Dimple. And what is that?
Ss: Mustache. Beard.
T: How about this thing?
Ss: Mustache
T: And this one?
Ss: Fringe.
T: Fringe.
Ss: Nostril.
T: Ya, nostril, good.
Ss: Height.
T: You can say that this one is tall, and this one is short, and the last one is medium.
Ss: Tall
T: Tall, short, and?
Ss: Medium
T: Medium, right. How to say kurus in English?
Ss: Slim, slender, thin.
T: Slim, slender, thin, skinny. Good. How to say gemuk?
Ss: Fat, overweight, big body
T: Big body, fat, overweight, bonny. Don‟t forget the first two are ruder than the last two.
Jadilebihkasaritu yang paling atasduaitu.Artinyasamasih. Before after, she is?
Ss: Fat
T: Fat. She is?
Ss: Skinny
T: Skinny or thin, the same person.Type of eyes. How to say people who
Ss: Slanting
T: Slanting, sipit. Big or wide.
Ss: Big
T: Type of skin. Asian people usually have light brown skin.
Ss: Black
T: Dark, don‟t say black. White or fair are the same. Putihatau fair itusama.Kalopucatituapa?
Ss: Pale
T: Ya, don‟t forget. Next, type of hair, the first picture
Ss: Long
T: Long. She has long and straight, adawarnanya black. Berartiurutannya?She has long straight
black hair. Noun phrase. How about this man? This man or this girl? She has
Ss: short curly black hair.
T: The left?
Ss: No hair.
T: No hair or bald. How about this girl?
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Ss: Medium
T: Medium. She has medium length, what else? Blonde straight hair. How about this girl?
Ss: Curly. Wavy
T: Curly. Curly atau wavy?Curly yakarenakeritingini.Warnanya?
Ss: Red head
T: It‟s more brunette or red. And the next one he has?
Ss: Short
T: Short. She is blon