Strategies Used and Challenges Faced by Thai EFL Teachers When Eliciting Talk During Classroom Interactions in High School Contexts

Abstract

Utilizing Conversation Analysis, this study examined classroom interactions to identify strategies secondary school teachers used to elicit EFL learners’ talk in four micro-pedagogical contexts. How strategies were used, and the challenges teachers faced were also explored. Four Thai teachers of English participated in the study, and approximately 7 hours of video and audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed alongside semi-structured teacher interviews. Overall, the most prevalent strategy used to elicit talk by the four teachers was display questioning, followed by some form of scaffolding strategy, and referential questioning. From classroom observations, the teachers’ consistent use of a variety of strategies apparently promoted learners’ active participation. Challenges included learners’ failure to respond, preference for passivity, lack of active verbal participation, selective answering, and shouted competing responses. It is suggested that L2 learning can be enhanced if teachers are aware of areas which may impede or promote L2 interactional opportunities in the classroom.

Building Learning Communities in Saudi EFL Online Classes

“…The findings point toward the crucial role of clarity in stating lesson objectives and instructions in this process. While this finding is in line with previous research Murray et al, 2012), some teachers added that using the L1 can help to clarify instructions for low-level students, which is also supported by previous studies (Farrelly & Sinwongsuwat, 2021). The findings further reflect the importance of providing online resources to promote the learning community (Hersman & Schroeder, 2017).…”

“…Finally, using the L1 to clarify instructions was rated the lowest in this category, which is inconsistent with prior findings. Farrelly and Sinwongsuwat (2021) found that the use of L1 helps students to understand new concepts in second language classes. It seems that students understand the importance of language practice, which may be why there is variance in students" responses.…”

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“…Thus, a novice teacher should consider how to use his TT to elicit students to engage in classroom activities rather than merely lecturing students and taking them as passive learners. Display questioning, scaffolding strategies and referential questioning are three prevalent strategies that could be used to motivate learners to participate in EFL classroom(Farrelly & Sinwongsuwat, 2021). Farrelly and Sinwongsuwat (2021) also mentioned anticipated problems include that learners fail to give response, prefer to be passive receiver, give selective answering, etc.…”