Promoting extended student talk in an EFL classroom

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the way one EFL teacher maintains and promotes extended student talk inan EFL Listening and Speaking Course at tertiary level via conversation analytic perspective. Promotingextended student turns is one of the main goals of meaning and fluency contexts in language classroomdiscourse (Seedhouse, 2004), thus, it is of quite importance to study extended student talk in a microanalytic and detailed way. The data were collected from an EFL class at a private university in Turkey.Listening and Speaking course was audio-recorded for nine classroom hours over five weeks. The datawere transcribed using Jefferson transcription system (Jefferson, 2004). The study revealed that theparticipants systematically follow an organized sequential path leading to extended learner turns. Thesequential unfolding of eliciting extended student talk involves alternative questions as a sequenceopener and elaboration questions as follow-ups. When students initiate word search sequence, theteacher addresses students’ emergent word searches and withholds evaluation turn via minimal responsetokens. In addition, on-the-spot decision making such as providing planning time stimulates extendedlearner talk in subsequent turns. The findings offer some suggestions for the practitioners who wouldlike to promote extended student talk and facilitate learning opportunities in their language classes andcontribute to the EFL classroom interaction research.