The effect of English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher Talk in Creating Classroom Interactions

Abstract

The success of teaching and learning depends on the way the teacher talk and the interactions that occur between teachers and students. The use of teacher talk can be considered a necessary as well as an unnecessary source in generating interactions. The study entitled ‘The effect of ESL Teacher Talk in creating classroom interaction’ has the objectives to portray the effect of ESL teacher talk in creating classroom interactions. This research employed an observation sheet, questionnaire and audio recording to reach the objectives. The categories of teacher talk existed in the classroom were discovered by using the observation sheet. Thereby, asking questions and lecturing were found as the dominant ones. The questionnaire was used to gain the students’ perceptions that supported the findings of the effects of teacher talk in which students perceived that the teacher indirectly asks many questions to involve them in the interactions. Thus, the study implies the idea that the teacher plays a major role in the classroom using the language to guide various types of functions as questioning, eliciting, explaining, giving feedback and instructions to generate inter-actions throughout the lesson. It is suggested that teachers should pay attention to their language in the process of interactions with the students to provoke more interactions in the classroom.