Shaping Learner Responses in Question-Answer Sequences in the EFL Classroom

Abstract

The construct of classroom interactional competence builds
upon propositions made by the sociocultural theory of learning to
explore the interactional consequences of teacher talk in the foreign
language classroom. The sociocultural theory upholds learner
participation as the key for learning to take place. Meanwhile, studies
with a conversation analytic methodology have shown that learner
participation depends in part on teachers’ interactional practices or their
classroom interactional competence. That is, teacher talk has the
potential to shape learner contributions in the classroom and either
facilitate or obstruct their participation. The present study has
investigated how teacher talk can do so across question-answer
sequences in two EFL classes in Japan and Taiwan in a Collaborative
Online International Learning program. The microanalytic study of
question-answer sequences in the data indicated that while referential
questions, as opposed to display questions, are more likely to generate
more elaborate learner responses, the interactional context in which
questions are posed can influence their outcome as well. Among the
interactional practices identified as facilitators of learners’ participation
were asking referential questions at TRPs, asking referential follow-up
questions when a communicative breakdown emerges, teacher echoing
of learner responses, and paraphrasing the referential question already
asked. On the contrary, practices including self-elaboration, selfanswering, asking referential questions in or after extended teacher
turns, teacher interruptions, and teacher turn completions were found to
have obstructive effects on learners’ responses.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.12.8