An Investigation Into the Communicative Potential Of

775 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE COMMUNICATIVE POTENTIAL OF TEACHERS' TARGET LANGUAGE USE IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM Rosamond Frances Mitchefl Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Phflosophy University of Stirling 1986 5/87 11 I3STRCT This thesis describes an investigation into the capacity of foreign language (FL) teachers in Scottish secondary schools to make the target foreign language the sole or main means of communication with their pupils in the formal setting of the FL lesson. In the first part of the thesis, the reasons why FL teachers should behave in this way are explored. Relevant sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic theories are first discussed, together with their implications for FL teaching methodology. Contextual factors thought likely to influence the extent to which British FL teachers would be either willing or able to make the target language the medium of classroom communication are then reviewed. These have to do with a) the nature of the classroom as a social and sociolinguistic setting, and b) FL teachers' linguistic competence and beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning. Existing research on FL classroom interaction, and in particular on structural and functional characteristics of teacher FL talk, is also reviewed. The second part of the thesis reports an empirical study of the classroom talk of a group of teachers committed to the 'communicative approach' to FL teaching. These teachers' classroom use of French (the target FL) and English is described at several levels of detail, notably that of the teaching! learning activity and of the pedagogic move. Structural characteristics of teacher talk are also studied. Special attention is given to teachers' classroom management talk, and it is argued that the choice of French for this purpose is critical for enhancing pupils' experience of message-oriented target language use. comparison is made between the language use patterns of teachers characterised as 'High' and 'Low FL Users'; and an account is given of the discourse strategies which appear necessary to sustain high levels of FL use. 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S This thesis has had a long gestation period. It is essentially the personal by-product of several years spent as a member of the the research community in the Department of Education at the University of Stirling, to all of wham I am grateful for continual stimulation and debate, coupled with insistence on rigour and professionalism in the conduct of educational research Particular mention must be made of the colleagues with whom I worked on the various Stirling research projects concerned with foreign language teaching notably Richard Johnstone, Gordon Maclead, Brian Parkinson, Mary Kilborn, and Diana Kent. The ideas underlying the empirical work described in this thesis were developed through extended debate with this group of people, so that it is at times hard to distinguish my own thoughts from those of others. I hope that where relevant here, due acknowledgement for such group insights has been made. In his role as my doctoral supervisor, Donald McIntyre has been his demanding and sympathetic self. Demanding in the standards set, and sympathetic in his understanding of the difficulties involved in part time study. I am grateful for the continual challenge posed by his incisive criticisms of this work, consistent with the intellectual leadership he has given in every other enterprise on which we have collaborated. Thanks are due to all the teachers and pupils who collaborated so willingly in the collection of the data upon which this study is based, several of whom have become lasting friends. And lastly, thanks go to my husband, whose consistent emotional and practical support were vital for the completion of this thesis. lv CONTENTS Page Chapter 1: CLASSROOM PROCESSES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 'Communicative' FL Teaching 3 1.3 Rationales for the Communicative Approach 6 1.3.1 A sociolinguistic rationale: 'communicative competence' 7 1.3.1.1 Syllabus design 9 1.3.1.2 Specification of syllabus and 'needs analysis' 10 1.3.1.3 Notional syllabuses 12 1.3.1.4 'Communicative competence' and FL teaching methodology 17 1.3.2 Psycholinguistic rationales for maximising TL use in the classroom 20 1.3.2.1 Research on Ll and L2 acquisition 20 1.3.2.2 Krashen's 'Monitor' theory: an integrated theory of language acquisition? 25 1.3.2.3 Criticisms of Monitor theory 27 1.3.2.3.1 'Acquisition' versus 'learning' 27 1.3.2.3.2 Problems of the 'input' hypothesis 29 1.3.23.3 The 'natural order' hypothesis and its implications 33 1.3.2.4 Psycholinguistics: conclusion 37 1.4 Conclusion 39 Chapter 2: COMMUNICATIVE FL-MEDIUM INTERACTION IN THE CLASSROOM: POTENTIAL AND CONSTRAINTS 42 2.1 Introduction 42 2.2 Defining 'Communicative' FL Use 43 2.3 Accounts of Contemporary Practice 48 V 2.4 The Classroom Context: A Social Psychological Perspective 53 2.4.1 Implications for target language use 57 2.5 Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Classroom Interaction and their Implications for FL Use 61 2.6 The L2 Teacher: Knowledge and Beliefs 68 2.6.1 Teacher target language proficiency 68 2.6.2 Teacher beliefs about learning and effective teaching 70 2.6.3 A survey of teacher beliefs 71 2.6.3.1 Teachers' understanding of 'communicative competence' 74 2.6.3.2 Teachers' views on syllabus content 76 2.6.3.3 Teachers' general views on methodology 80 2.6.3.4 Role play 81 2.6.3.5 The place of grarpmar explanations 83 2.6.3.6 The language of classroom management 86 2.6.4 Teachers' beliefs and classroom practice 91 2.7 Conclusion 92 Chapter 3: PREVIOUS EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF FL CLASSROOM TEACHER TALK 95 3.1 Introduction 95 3.2 The Notion of Simplification 96 3.3 Structural Characteristics of Teachers' L2 Classroom Talk 97 3.4 Discourse Characteristics of Teacher Talk: General Overviews 101 3.4.1 Classroom management language and managerial strategies 105 3.4.2 Communication and repair strategies 110 3.4.3 Metalinguistic teacher talk 113 3.5 Conclusion 114 vi Chapter 4: TARGET LANGUAGE TALK IN SCOTTISH CLASSROOM SETTINGS 116 4.1 Introduction 116 4.2 Rationale for the Present Study 117 4.3 Relationship of the Present Study and the 1980- 1983 Communicative Interaction Research Project 125 4.4 The Database for the Present Study 1 28 4.4.1 The selection of teachers 128 4.4.2 The first set of lessons (non-interventionist) 129 4.4.3 The second set of lessons (interventionist) 134 Chapter 5: FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENTIATION IN LANGUAGE USE 136 5.1 Introduction 136 5.2 Identifying 'High', 'Mid', and 'Low' French Users 137 5.3 The Overall Pattern of Teaching/Learning Activities 142 5.3.1 Procedures for the study of lesson 'segments' 144 5.3.1.1 Four dimensions for analysis 146 5.3.1.2 Adaptations to the 1981 system 149 5.3.1.3 Limitations of the segmental analysis system 151 5.3.2 Findings of the segmental analysis 1 54 5.3.2.1 Findings of the segmental analysis: concluding summary 171 5.4 Functional Differentiation in Classroom Management Language 171 5.4.1 Selection of language functions for study at subsegmental level 171 5.4.2 A unit of analysis: 'the pedagogic move' 173 5.4.2.1 Categories of 'pedagogic move' 179 5.4.3 Teachers' language choices for managerial moves: the findings 1 87 5.4.3.1 Language choices in 'Organising' and 'Activity' instructions 187 vii 5.4.3.2 Teachers' language choice for 'Lesson instructions' 197 5.4.3.3 Teachers' language choice for 'Disciplinary interventions' 199 5.5 Metalinguistic Talk 202 5.5.1 Why study metalinguistic talk? 202 5.5.2 Analytic procedures for studying metalinguistic talk 205 : 553 Context, topic and language choice in metalinguistic talk 206 5.6 Conclusion 218 Chapter 6: STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TEACHERS' FL TALK 227 6.1 Introduction 227 6.2 Lexical Range 233 6.2.1 Procedures for counting verb lexemes 234 6.2.2 Verb lexeme count: the findings 235 6.3 Verb Morphology 251 6.4 Syntactic 'Complexity' 267 6.4.1 Coordination and subordination 268 6.4.2 Use of adverbials 273 6.5 Use of Discourse Markers 276 6.5.1 Procedures for identifying 'Discourse markers' 277 6.5.2 Teachers' use of 'Discourse markers' 279 6.6 Conclusion 284 Chapter 7: TEACHERS' SOLUTIONS FOR CLASSROOM COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES 288 7.1 Introduction 288 7.2 Overall Plan for Analysis 291 7.2.1 Identifying 'difficulty-resolving episodes' 292 7.3 A Taxonomy of Difficulty-resolving Strategies 297 7.3.1 DR category definitions 298 7.3.2 Rationale for DR categories 305 7.3.3 Coding procedures 305 viii 7.4 Analysis of Main Data Corpus 307 7.4.1 Identification of episodes and extent of multiple coding 307 7.4.2 Teachers' strategic choices 309 7.4.3 Content of DR episodes 313 7.4.3.1 Content of episodes taught by 'High FL Users' 314 7.4.3.2 Content of episodes taught by 'Mid' and 'Low FL Users' 323 7.4.3.3 Qualitative differences in DR episodes 327 7.5 Analysis of Action Research Lessons 328 7.5.1 Choice of AR lessons for study 330 7.5.2 Teachers' overall language use in AR lessons 331 7.5.3 Frequency of DR episodes and teachers' choice of DR strategies (AR lessons) 333 7.5.4 Achieving comprehensibility in AR lessons 334 7.6 Conclusion 339 Chapter 8: CONCLUSION 342 8.1 Relating Findings to Theory 342 8.2 The Quality of Classroom FL Experience 342 8.2.1 Accounting for the quality of classroom experience 351 8.3 Sustaining Target Language Use 353 8.3.1 Developing towards consistent target language use 355 8.4 A Forward Look 358 APPENDIX A: EXTRACT FROM LESSON TRANSCRIPT 360 APPENDIX B: DIMENSIONS FOR THE CODING OF LESSON SEGMENTS 362 BIBLIOGRAPHY 365 1 CHAPTER 1 CLASSROOM PROCESSES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 1.1 Introduction This thesis describes an investigation into the capacity of foreign language (FL) teachers in Scottish secondary schools to make the target foreign language the sole or main means of communication with their pupils in the formal setting of the FL lesson.

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