SIH KADARWATI (0713042045) Teacher talk

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

TEACHER TALK

by

SIH KADARWATI 0713042045

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY

ARTS AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

THE UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG

2010

A.    BACKGROUND

Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition. It is the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive in the foreign language classroom teaching. The relative studies abroad on teacher talk are mainly focused on the amount and type of teacher talk, its effects on language comprehension, teacher questions, feedback and error correction. Most studies and surveys carried out at home in recent years have put more emphasis on the quantity of teacher talk rather than on its quality. The present article analyzes two extracts from College English classroom teaching, using a Conversation Analysis (CA) methodology and tries to explore the potential that teachers of EFL may facilitate or increase opportunities for language learning and learner participation through their choice and use of language and the possibility that they may hinder or decrease these opportunities.

Teacher talk encompasses the kinds of questions that teachers ask, the amount and type of talking that teachers do, the type of error correction and feedback that teachers provide, and the speech modifications teachers make when talking to second language learners. 

B.     THEORY

For foreign language learners, classroom is the main place where they are frequently exposed to the target language. The kind of language used by the teacher for instruction in the classroom is known as teacher talk (TT). For this term, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics defines it as “that variety of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to communicate with learners, teachers often simplify their speech, giving it many of the characteristics of foreigner talk and other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners” (Richards, 1992: 471).

Having studied the SLA for many years, Rod Ellis (1985) has formulated his own view about teacher talk: “Teacher talk is the special language that teachers use when addressing L2 learners in the classroom. There is systematic simplification of the formal properties of the teacher’s language… studies of teacher talk can be divided into those that investigate the type of language that teachers use in language classrooms and those that investigate in the type of language they use in subject lessons.” He also commented “the language that teachers address to L2 learner is treated as a register, with its own specific formal and linguistics properties” (Ellis, 1985: 145).

First of all, teacher-talk is useful when the following conditions are met. These conditions all relate to verbal factors.

1.      It is broken into sense groups

2. It is simplified but not unnatural
3. It is more redundant than 'ordinary speech' and words and structures are naturally repeated or 're-cycled' at regular intervals
4. It is broken into 'short paragraph' segments to encourage or invite students to interrupt, comment and ask questions.
5. When new vocabulary or structure is taught, typical examples are given
6. The teacher gets regular feedback through questions - especially 'open questions' or 'two-step questions'

7.      Teacher uses other devices to get feedback such as

-physical response (Touch your left ear)

- using 'parallels to get examples from the class

8.      Variety of elicitation & explanation techniques are used, including

-use of context

-enactment

-illustration

9. There is also a variety of correction techniques, including both covert and overt types

10.  It is between 95% and 85% comprehensible

Chaudron (1988:174) found that the teachers receiving training in question types produced significantly more referential questions than the control teachers following training. Good learner performance depends on the teacher. “Errors in the input may be ‘acquired’ by listeners.” (Krashen, 1985: 9) “The purpose of language teaching in a sense is to provide optimal samples of language for the learner to profit from -- the best ‘input’ to the process of language learning. Everything the teacher does provide the learner with opportunities for encountering the language.” (Cook, 2000: 129) Teachers should focus on the quality of their talk and find appropriate forms of teacher talk to make their talk more effective, stimulating and interesting.

Error correction is a complex and important matter in language classroom for “a learner’s errors… are significant in [that] they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired…” Correction helps students to clarify their understanding of the meaning and construction of language. It is a vital part of the teacher’s role. (Harmer, 2000:62)The matter of when, how and who correct errors has been a controversial issue and has no simple answer. We have to be careful that if we do it in an insensitive way, we can upset our students and dent their confidence (Harmer, 2000:62).

C.    ANALYSIS

When the teacher talks, she or he maintains eye contact with as many members of the class as possible. The teacher uses eye-contact and body movement to give emphasis and invite participation (prolonged gaze at different students between some sentences to invite comment, gestures to help explain language, etc.)

It is important to remember the teachers have a certain amount of power in the classroom, but learners also clearly influence the pace and direction of interaction. Learners have their preferences and utilize their own learning strategies and these sometimes run contrary to the teacher’s plan. Different students with different personality do not have identical psychological process while learning English. Students’ needs, motivation and learning factors influence their learning process.

First of all, changing the role of teacher and establishing a new teacher- student relationship. Teachers are a medium of teaching. It is the teachers’ responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting for classroom activities. Guidelines for classroom practice suggest that during an activity the teacher monitors, encourages and organizes the students and provides them with information of each particular course and strategy of learning. In addition to the two primary roles as organizers and facilitators, according to Richards (1995), teachers should fulfill the following roles: monitor, motivator, controller, provider, counselor and friend, needs analyst, materials developer, evaluator. By contrast, the students are viewed as a subject of teaching who play a creative role by responding to stimuli from the teacher.

Secondly, the students’ needs should be taken into consideration. Teachers should have a better understanding of the students. Since the students play the main role in learning, teachers should care much about their needs, motivation, personal factors and

Teachers should persist in the study of teaching and leaning theory and place teacher-training in its proper place. At the same time, a good teacher must integrate the teaching theory with practice. Teacher talk is the medium to combine theory with classroom practice. It will contribute a lot to the successful classroom language teaching if teachers know about the theoretical knowledge including teacher talk. their role in learning. Only when teachers and students work together as happy partners, only when we think of students as the most important ingredients in the teachinglearning process and adapt the teaching approaches to students and to their circumstances, can teachers manage teaching successfully.

From the video, we can know that children give a good attention to their teacher when she tells the story. Children do what their teacher wants to do. The respond of the children is the indicator that the children understand what their teacher talk.

Clip 1

Guru                : Siapa yang gak mandi?

Murid-murid   : Aku…

Guru                : Yang ‘gak mandi lho?

Murid-murid   : (Diam)

Guru                : Yang mandi?

Murid-murid   : Aku…

Guru                : Ya, trus siapa tadi yang mandinya gosok gigi?

Murid-murid   : Aku…

Guru                : Bunda pengen liat giginya kayak mana…

Murid-murid   : (menunjukkan giginya)

Murid A          : Bunda bunda…aku sikap giginya pake baju.

Guru                : Hah…pake apa?(sambil mendekatkan teling ke siswa A)

baju…heh Kania tu gosok giginya katanya pake baju lho.

Murid B          : Bunda bunda (membisikkan sesuatu kepada guru)

Guru                : Oh…Naila sikat giginya pake sikat gigi.

Murid C          : Sikat gigiku odolnya baru lho ada rasa buah-buahannya.

Guru                : Iya iya duduk lagi

Coba bunda pengen liat giginya. Mana giginya. Gigi susu yang mana?gigi susu yang mana?Yang didepan ini namanya gigi susu (menunjukkan gigi susu) gunanya untuk…

Murid-murid   : menggigit makanan.

Guru                : Coba gigi taring yang mana gigi taring?

Murid-murid   : (menunjukkan gigi taring mereka)

Guru                : Gigi taring yang runcing gunanya untuk menggigit ma…

Murid-murid   : kanan.

Guru                : Trus gigi geraham yang ada di dalam gunanya untuk mengunyah makanan. Nah tu gigi geraham.

Murid B          : Bunda aku wangi.

Guru                : Siapa yang giginya berlubang?Siapa yang giginya ada lubangnya?

Murid-murid   : Nggak.

Guru                : Eh kalo anak kecil kalo giginya berlubang itu berarti dia gak pernah gosok gigi. Trus giginya ada “uler”nya. Nah makanya kalian harus rajin gosok gigi.

Murid B          : Bunda adikku adik bai gak sikat gigi.

Guru                : Oh ya belum bias, kalo adik bayi belum bias gosok gigi.

Murid D          : Adikku juga adikku dua.

Guru                : Sekarang bunda mau ngucapin salam. Siapa yang paling pinter jawab salam bunda. Ayo…selamat pagi anak-anak.

Murid-murid   : Selamat pagi bunda.

Guru                : Nah ternyata pinte-pinter. Yuk sekarang kita nyanyi lagu wajib “Aku anak PAUD tidak takut dan malu” yuk. 1.2.3.

Guru&murid2 : Aku anak PAUD tidak takut dan malu karena guruku sayang padaku. Mama dan papa silahkan pulang dulu. Tinggal aku pulang mama papa jemput aku. Cacamarica e e, cacamarica e e, cacamarica aku senang di PAUD. Cacamarica e e, cacamarica e e, cacamarica aku senang di PAUD.

Guru                : Wah anak PAUD tu pinter-pinter ya nyanyi lagu anak PAUD aja udah pinter nyanyinya. Nah sekarang nyanyi lagi. Tepuk teletabis…

Guru&murid2 : (tepuk tangan) tingkiwingki

                        (tepuk tangan) dipsi

(tepuk tangan) lala

(tepuk tangan) po

Berpelukan (saling merangkul teman yang ada disebelahnya).

Guru                : Iya…tepuk badut

Guru&murid2 : (tepuk tangan) perut gendut.

(tepuk tangan) pake topeng.

(tepuk tangan) amat lucu

Badut lo (saling menunjuk satu sama lain)

Guru                : Iya pinter. Coba sekarang bunda mau nyanyi kalian yang menjawab ya. Ada kakek kakek kakek…

Murid-murid   : “tuek”

Guru                : Pinter! Ada nenek nenek nenek…

Murid-murid   : “tuek”

Guru                : Pinter! Kakek mencubit nenek, nenek mencubit kakek. Kakek nenek…

Guru&murid2 : Cubit-cubitan.

Guru                : Pinter. Trus kalo lagu yang hidungnya panjang tu apa?

Murid-murid   : Pinokio.

Guru                : Lagunya gimana?

Murid-murid   : Putih-putih melati Alibaba…

Guru                : O iya, yok putih-putih melati 1.2.3.

Guru&murid2 : Putih-putih melati Alibaba. Merah-merah delima Pinokio. Siapa yang baik hati Cinderela. Tentu disayang mama.

Clip 2

Guru                : Bunda mau bercerita tentang malaikat. Ada tiga orang malaikat (menggambar tiga malaikat di papan tulis). Malaikatnya ini ada berapa coba?

Murid-murid   : Dua...

Guru                : Nah liat ini (sambil menggambar). Ini rambutnya (menggambar rambut malaikat).

Murid A          : Tangannya mana?

Guru                : Liat ini (menunjuk gambar malaikat ketiga) lidahnya panjang. Yang ini malaikat yang paling jahat namanya Lucifer. Nah ini (menunjuk gambar malaikat kedua) malaikat paling baik sekali namanya Gabriel. Oh ini pencabut nyawa yang suka mencabut nyawanya orang. Nah ini (menunjuk gambar malaikat pertama) malaikat Mikhael. Nah ini malaikatnya liat malaikatny ada tiga. Malaikat Mikhael, Gabriel juga Lucifer. Lucifer iki (ini) malaikat yang paling jahat sedangkan ini (menunjukkan gambar Gabriel) Gabriel malaikat yang paling baik sedangkan Mikhael malaikat pencabut nyawa. Nah, malaikatnya ada berapa ini dihitung coba. Dihitung malaikatnya ada berapa?

Murid-murid   : 1.2.3

Guru                : Coba dihitung pake Bahasa Inggris.

Murid-murid   : One two three

Guru                : Berapa?

Murid-murid   : Three

Guru                : Three, tiga. Coba tadi malaikatnya yang paling baik yang mana, malaikat yang                             paling baik.

Murid-murid   : (menunjuk gambar malaikat kedua)

Guru                : Namanya ini malaikat apa yang paling baik(menunjuk gambar malaikat kedua)? Ga...briel. Trus namanya ini apa ini malaikat yang paling jahat(menunjuk malaikat ketiga)? Lu...ci...fer. Trus yang pencabut nyawa ini (menunjuk malaikat pertama) namanya Mikhael. Mikhael itu pencabut nyawa, yang paling baik itu Gabriel sedangkan yang paling jahat itu Lucifer. Tuh, coba kalo kalian jahat-jahat ama temennya gak sayang berarti kalian digoda oleh malaikat Lucifer ini (menunjuk gambar malaikat ketiga).

Murid A          : Bunda, gimana kalo gundul?

Guru                : Orangnya gundul? Lha nanti yang melindungi kepalanya apa. Kalo orang gundul tu gak punya pelindung kepala lho. Ini yang melindungi kepala kita tu ya rambut kita ini (memegang rambutnya). Nah...sekarang bunda mau bercerita lagi. Ada tiga orang yang kaya raya (menggambar tiga orang). Dia sedang makan, ini meja makannya(menggambar meja makan), ini piringnya (menggambar piring di atas meja), ini lauk pauknya (menggambar lauk pauk di atas piring). Dia makan tam tem tam tem enak buanget ya makan ampek lahap itu ampek jatuh-jatuh. Dia makan apa ini (menggambar ikan)?

Murid-murid   : Ikan.

Guru                : Nah dia makan ikan. Trus dia makan apa ini namanya (menggambar mie)?Apa?

Murid-murid   : Mie.

Guru                : Makan mie. Dia makan sayuran juga, dia makan nasi juga, nasinya ampek jatuh-jatuh. Trus ini ada binatang namanya(menggambar anjing)binatang ini ya waduh bunda bikin binatangnya kurang bagus ini. Ini tadinya ada anjing etok-etoke ini anjing ya ada anjing disini. Nah suatu hari dia tu makan enak, ada yang datang seorang yang miskin (menggambar seorang miskin) dia kelaparan ampek perutnya sakit. Dia datang kesini. Tuhan perutku sakit-sakit sekali, aku tiga hari belum makan. Berapa hari belum makan?

Murid-murid   : Tiga hari.

Guru                : Tiga hari aku belum makan bolehkah aku mengambil makanan yang jatuh di lantai itu katanya ini (menunjuk gambar orang miskin) namanya ini Lazarus. Nah bolehkah saya mengambil makanan yang jatuh dilantai ini? Orang yang kaya ini jahat, dia pelit. Gak boleh, gak boleh ngambil, ini buat siapa ini (menunjuk anjing)

Murid-murid   : Anjing.

Guru                : Buat anjing kesayanganku kamu gak boleh mengambil makanan yang jatuh disini. Katanya ini, ini yang jahat ini tadi ini (menunjuk orang yang kaya). Ini pemuda kaya raya tapi jahat, pelit, gak mau berbagi sama temennya. Liat padahal ini tadi kelaparan. Aduh perutku sakit, aduh perutku sakit. Akhirnya ini (menunjuk Lazarus) lemas lemas akhirnya jatuh deh.Udah jatuh akhirnya ini (menunjuk Lazarus) menjadi diambil oleh malaikat pencabut nyawa tadi. Akhirnya dia mati. Dia sebenarnya orang baik tapi kelaparan gak punya makanan akhirnya apa, dia mati dipangku oleh malaikat yang baik hati namanya malaikat Gabriel ya. Nah ini(menunjuk Lazarus) dipangku disisni (menggambar Lazarus dipangkuan Gabriel). Nah suatu hari ini (menunjuk orang yang kaya) salah satunya karena dia pelit ya, tiba-tiba dia mati juga tpi dia mati kok malah diambil malaikat pencabut nyawa, dia masuk neraka. Liat ini ada kompornya panas (menggambar kompor) ada bala apinya. Liat masuk neraka disini.

Murid  A         : Bunda, aku liat di TV ada setannya.

Guru                : Iya?

Murid B          : Aku juga.

Guru                : Ho oh?

Murid C          : Aku juga.

Guru                : Liat ini tadi mati masuk didalam neraka karena dia tadi jahat gak mau berbagi makanan ama temennya. Nah trus dia didalan neraka. Hiks...hiks...panas sekali, akau gak tau kok ini panas sekali. Tuhan kenapa kok ini orang (menunjuk Lazarus) Kamu tempatkan ditempat yang baik sedang aku kok disisni kenapa? Orang kamu semasa hidupnya gak mau berbagi. Orang kamu semasa hidupnya pelit, jadi kamu Aku masukin aja didalem neraka, kata-Nya seperti itu. Nah ini (menunjuk orang yang kaya) dimasukin ke dalam neraka. Trus ini (menunjuk orang kaya) bilang, bagaimana nanti dengan saudara-saudaraku. Tolong bilangin dengan saudara-saudaraku nggak pelit. O gak bisa kalo suruh bilangin, nanti biar dia sadar sendiri. Nah ini (menunjuk dua orang kaya yang masih hidup) trus akhirnya sadar gak pelit lagi. Nah makannya kita ya

Murid  A         : Bunda warnanya itu.

Guru                : Iya.Makanya anak-anak PAUD gak boleh pelit, harus pinter berbagi. Kalo pelit nanti masuk mana ni?

Murid              : Neraka.

Guru                : Masuk neraka. Kalo nakal, kalo jahat masuk mana? Masuk neraka.

Murid D          : Bunda Farid kalo punya jajan aku gak dikasih.

Guru                : Gak dikasih? Nah nanti bisa masuk neraka kalo pelt-pelit makanya gak boleh pelit-pelit sama temennya. Kalo punya makanan gak boleh dimakan sendiri kalo ada temennya ndelongop dikasih, ni tak kasih sedikit, kasian lho masak ada temennya makan gak dikasih tu kasian nanti kalo pelit-pelit nanti masuknya disini (menunjuk gambar neraka).

Murid D          : Bunda kemaren Farid...

Guru                : Kok Fardi pelit sih, hehehe...

Murid B          : Kemaren aku main sepeda Farid tuku (beli) jajan aku gak dikasih.

Guru                : Gak dikasih? Besok kalo Fardi punya jajan temennya dikasih ya. Biar Farid gak masuk neraka ya.