The development and validation of an English language teacher talk functional scale
Teacher talk is of noteworthy significance in mainstream education and several attempts have aimed at evaluating it. The existing tools, nevertheless, are only general frameworks and with no specific focus on the main functions of teacher talk in ELT contexts. The present study gives a comprehensi...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Urmia University
2017-07-01
|
| Series: | Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.urmia.ac.ir/sites/www.urmia.ac.ir/files/3.%20Khany.pdf |
| Summary: | Teacher talk is of noteworthy significance in mainstream education and several attempts have aimed
at evaluating it. The existing tools, nevertheless, are only general frameworks and with no specific
focus on the main functions of teacher talk in ELT contexts. The present study gives a comprehensive
account of ELT teacher talk and aims at developing a teacher talk instrument whose items are specific
to ELT classes. Accordingly, extensive analysis of the related literature and the researchers’ developed
concept of the main functions of teacher talk were used as the foundation to develop a preliminary
theoretical model of ELT teacher talk. The proposed theoretical conceptualization was refined through
observation of the talk of ELT practitioners as well as interviews with ELT teachers and teacher
educators. Ultimately, the theoretical conceptualization led to the development and validation of an
observational English Language Teacher Talk Functional Scale (TTFS). The scale was piloted and then
administered through having the talk of 182 ELT teachers rated by ELT teacher educators for final
validation. TTFS was validated through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The result
indicated that the constructed items in the TTFS and the conceptualization of the construct of teacher
talk were meaningful to teachers, teacher educators, and teacher observers and indicative of the
effectiveness of teacher talk in ELT contexts. We hope that the present study results in a more
worthwhile understanding of the functions of teacher talk and provides an efficacious assessment tool
for reflective practice and constructive feedback to ELT teachers. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2322-1291 2322-1291 |