English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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DOING-ENGLISH-LESSONS 281to where?>). Instead of follow<strong>in</strong>g the storyl<strong>in</strong>e and ask<strong>in</strong>g about what happens to S<strong>in</strong>badnext, the second question requires the students to give the spell<strong>in</strong>g of the <strong>English</strong> versionof the name of the place, “Baa-Gaak-Daaht”, which has been offered by a student as aresponse and acknowledged and repeated by the teacher (turns (479.51, [479.8]). It seemsto be a question that requircs thc students to focus on the l<strong>in</strong>guistic aspects of the story.They have read the <strong>English</strong> text (pp. 4042 of their storybook), and the <strong>English</strong> text is nowlaid out on their desks before them. The question requires them to shift their focus fromthe content of the storyfor a while to concentrate on the language <strong>in</strong> which this content iscouched. It seems that the place name <strong>in</strong> Cantonese (“Baa-Gaak-Daaht”) cannot be acceptedby the teacher as an acceptablejnal answer.The teacher’s follow-up question on the elicitedanswer would have the effect of gett<strong>in</strong>g the students to reformulate the answer <strong>in</strong>to anultimately acceptable format - “<strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>” (the words the teacher uses <strong>in</strong> her follow-up<strong>in</strong>itiation; see l<strong>in</strong>e 2 <strong>in</strong> turn [479.8]).We see <strong>in</strong> turns [48 1.51 and [483] that the teacher ultimately gets the L2 formulationof the answer -“Baghdad”, and she writes it on the blackboard. Only L2 answers are writtenon the blackboard. It seems that the teacher’s act of writ<strong>in</strong>g the student’s response on theblackboard has the effect of conferr<strong>in</strong>g a f<strong>in</strong>al-answer status on the response of the student(Heyman, 1983).UnlikeTeacher C, who often does her <strong>in</strong>itiations <strong>in</strong> an L2 (Question) - L1 (Annotationof Question) sequence,Teacher D often starts with L1 to <strong>in</strong>itiate a question about the story.Teacher D seems to be us<strong>in</strong>g a couplet of IRF formats to do consecutively two differentk<strong>in</strong>ds of th<strong>in</strong>gs. The first IRF format is always used to engage the students <strong>in</strong> co-tell<strong>in</strong>g thestory (e.g., turns [469]-[479.8]).The focus is on the content of the story and the questionsasked <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>itiation slots follow naturally from the storyl<strong>in</strong>e.The second IRF format (e.g.,turns [479.8]-[483]) is used to get the students to reformulate <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> their Cantoneseanswer that has been acknowledged <strong>in</strong> the first IRF format. The second IRF format may berepeated to get the students to focus on the l<strong>in</strong>guistic aspects of the f<strong>in</strong>al L2 answer. Forexample, the second IRF format is repeated <strong>in</strong> turns [483], [483 .SI, [484] to get the studentsto say “Baghdad” <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>.With the paired use of the story-focus-IRF format immediately followed by thelanguage-focus IRF format, the teacher can get the students to reformulate their earlier L1responses <strong>in</strong>to the language that they are supposed to be learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the lesson: <strong>English</strong>.Thisspecial use of the IRF formats <strong>in</strong> Teacher D’s classroom stands <strong>in</strong> contrast with the use ofthe IRF format <strong>in</strong> Teacher C’s class. For <strong>in</strong>stance, Teacher C always starts with L2 texts orquestions <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>itiation slot of the IRF format. She then uses the L2-L1 Annotation format<strong>in</strong> the same <strong>in</strong>itiation slot to annotate the L2 text or question. Students usually respond <strong>in</strong>L1 .Then the teacher herself reformulates the students’ L1 response <strong>in</strong>to L2 and confers onit the f<strong>in</strong>al-answer status. This k<strong>in</strong>d of discourse practice has the effect of allow<strong>in</strong>g thestudents to get away with L1 responses only. The students are not required to do anyreformulation of their L1 responses <strong>in</strong>to L2.The teacher does it all for them <strong>in</strong> the feedbackslot of the IRF format. The discourse structure of Teacher C <strong>in</strong> the read<strong>in</strong>g lesson can berepresented as follows:Teacher-Initiation [L2-L1]Student-Response [Ll]Teacher-Feedback [ (Ll-)L2]In contrast,Teacher D uses two different IRF formats <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g cycle <strong>in</strong> the read<strong>in</strong>glesson: