Assessing English Language Teachers’ Initiation of Discourse in the Light of Teaching Experience and Learners’ Proficiency Level

محورهای موضوعی : نشریه زبان و ترجمه

مینا اسماعیلی ¹ , Zohreh Seifoori ² , Touran Ahour ³

1 - department of English Language ,Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2 - Department of English Language, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
3 - Department of English Language, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran.

تاریخ دریافت : 1401/06/31 تاریخ پذیرش : 1401/11/24 تاریخ انتشار : 1402/04/10

کلید واژه: Teaching Experience, Classroom Discourse, IRF, Inferential Questions, Referential Questions,

چکیده مقاله :

The pattern dominating Classroom discourse is Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) and the initiation move normally takes the form of questions asked by teachers. The questions might be either referential or inferential and classroom research has accentuated the role these questions can play in eliciting learner output with the latter more likely conducive to meaning-focused output. However, what still awaits scrutiny is the extent to which teachers tend to activate learners’ semantic and syntactic processing by using appropriate questions and how their experience might mediate their choices at varying proficiency levels. Hence, the present descriptive study set out to compare the frequency of inferential and referential questions employed by novice and experienced teachers to initiate interaction at lower-intermediate (LI) and upper-intermediate (UI) levels. For the purpose of the study, a purposive sample of 20 English classrooms were selected at nine branches of an English institute in Tabriz, Iran. The classrooms were taught by five novice and five experienced teachers. Using a semi-structured researcher-made and piloted observation form, the classroom procedures were observed, recorded, and transcribed. The transcribed data were further analyzed employing the standardized coding system proposed by Long and Sato (1983) as a seven-category taxonomy of functions of teacher questions. The results revealed that experienced teachers used significantly more referential questions at both LI and UI levels. In contrast, novice teachers were found to use significantly more inferential questions at both LI and upper intermediate levels. Pedagogical implications of the findings will be discussed.

چکیده انگلیسی:

الگوی غالب در گفتمان کلاس درس ، شروع-پاسخ-بازخورد (IRF) است و شروع معمولاً به شکل سؤالاتی است که معلمانمی‌پرسند. سؤالات ممکن است ارجاعی یا استنباطی باشند و تحقیقات کلاسی بر نقشی که این سؤالات می توانند در برانگیختنپاسخ‌های دانش‌آموزان ایفا کنند، تأکید کرده است که دومی احتمالاً منجر به پاسخ‌های متمرکز بر معنا می شود. با این حال، چیزیکه هنوز نیازمند بررسی است، میزان تمایل معلمان به فعال کردن پردازش معنایی و نحوی دانش‌آموزان با استفاده از سؤالاتمناسب و اینکه چگونه تجربه آنها ممکن است عامل انتخاب سؤالات ارجاعی یا استنباطی در سطوح مختلف مهارتی میباشد است. ازاین رو، مطالعه توصیفی حاضر با هدف مقایسه فراوانی و نوع سؤالات استنباطی و ارجاعی به کار گرفته شده توسط معلمان مبتدیو مجرب برای شروع تعامل در سطوح ‌ متوسط پایین ​​(LI) و متوسط ​​​​بالا (UI) انجام شد. به منظور پژوهش، نمونه ای هدفمندشامل 20 کلاس درس زبان انگلیسی در 9 شعبه یک مؤسسه انگلیسی در تبریز، ایران انتخاب شد. کلاس ها توسط پنج معلم مبتدی وپنج معلم با تجربه تدریس می شد. با استفاده از فرم مشاهدات طراحی شده توسط محقق، رویه های کلاس مشاهده، ثبت و رونویسیشد. داده های رونویسی شده بیشتر با استفاده از سیستم کدگذاری استاندارد شده پیشنهاد شده توسط لانگ و ساتو (1983) به عنوانیک طبقه بندی هفت طبقه ای از توابع سوالات معلم مورد تجزیه و تحلیل قرار گرفت. نتایج نشان داد که معلمان با تجربه به طورقابل توجهی از سوالات ارجاعی بیشتری در هر دو سطح ‏ متوسط ​​پایین و متوسط ​​بالا استفاده کردند. در مقابل، مشخص شد کهمعلمان مبتدی از سؤالات استنباطی به طور قابل توجهی در هر دو سطح متوسط ​​پایین و متوسط ​​​​بالا استفاده می کنند. پیامدهایآموزشی یافته ها مورد بحث قرار خواهد گرفت.

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