Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v24i4.4467
Shaping Learner Contributions via a Combination of Different Resources: Joint Use of ‘Okay’ and Type-specific Questions
Cihat Atar
orcid.org/0000-0002-5879-3432
; Sakarya Univeristy
Paul Seedhouse
; Newcastle University
Steve Walsh
; Newcastle University
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the interactional organization of English teachers’ acknowledgment followed by type-specific questions. Shaping learners’ contributions via acknowledgment and type-specific questions is argued to be a part of Classroom Interactional Competence as the 5th skill in language teaching. Hence, this two-step move is studied to achieve a broader understanding of teachers’ interactional repertoire. This study has a qualitative design utilizing Conversation Analysis. Eighteen hours of classroom data from Newcastle University Corpus of Academic Spoken English make up the data. The findings suggest that teachers’ acknowledgment followed by type-specific questions is an indicator of Classroom Interactional Competence, and it is highly dependent upon the task goal (i.e., a pedagogic repair). Contrary to the previous studies, the joint use of acknowledgment is found to shape students’ previous turns by foregrounding achievement rather than closing a topic or indicating a transition. Then, this joint use allows teachers to acknowledge or approve a learner’s utterance on one level while carrying out repair work on another level enabling them to operate on different levels in the complex realm of the classroom.
Keywords
acknowledgment tokens; Classroom Interactional Competence; English language teaching; feedback; repair initiation.
Hrčak ID:
293537
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2022.
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