Open AccessANALYZING EFL CLASSROOM TALK DURING CLASS OPENING: TOPIC SHIFT AND NEGOTIATION
Author(s) -
Phalangchok Wanphet
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
discourse and interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1805-952X
pISSN - 1802-9930
DOI - 10.5817/di2016-2-95
Subject(s) - class (philosophy) , conversation , perspective (graphical) , negotiation , natural (archaeology) , conversation analysis , mathematics education , psychology , pedagogy , linguistics , computer science , sociology , communication , history , artificial intelligence , social science , philosophy , archaeology
This exploratory study, following a conversation analytic (CA) perspective, investigates topic shift in classroom talk during the class opening. The data, which are natural observational, come from three hours of audio-recordings of verbal interaction between four EFL teachers and their students during the class opening at an Asian university. The fi ndings are threefold. First, the EFL teachers’ topic-changing turns are much longer than turns that do not serve the same purpose. Second, the EFL teachers’ topic-changing turns consist of two parts: a) the fi rst part deals with the students’ preceding topic and turns; and b) the second part is intentionally designed to prompt the next topic. Third, discourse markers are placed between the two parts. A close analysis of the EFL teachers’ topic-changing turns suggests that they may make topic shift appear more natural and spontaneous. However, their turns have features that diff erentiate them from those located in mundane talk.