Teacher-Pupil Talk in a Bilingual Kindergarten English Class

Abstract

This study investigated the features of teacher-pupil talk in a bilingual kindergarten English class. One foreign English teacher and five children participated in the study. Basal reading, writing and storybook reading, the three activities that took up most class time, were selected for analysis. One complete period of each of activity was randomly sampled, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the CHILDES system. A coding scheme was developed to examine teacher-pupil talk types in four main categories, ”request,” ”provision,” ”feedback/response,” and ”management/discipline.” Three major findings were produced: (1) The teacher was dominant, leading the learning activities, while the pupils were passive, following the teacher's instruction. (2) Teacher and pupil talk during basal reading and writing activities consisted predominantly of language skill practices and management utterances. (3) In contrast, during the story-telling activity, the teacher allowed more speaking time and pupils made greater contributions to classroom conversation. The article concludes with implications for early childhood English instruction and suggestions for future studies.