Input, Interaction, Foreigner and Teacher Talk

Damaris Escobar

June, 2012

REPUBLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELA UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR

INSTITUTO PEDAGÓGICO DE CARACASDepartamento de idiomas modernos

Cátedra de lingüísticaLinguistics seminar

Teacher: Mirna quintero

Content

Input and interaction in second language

acquistion

Teacher Talk

Foreigner Talk

Input

• Stephen Krashen took a very strong position on the importance

of input, asserting that comprehensible input is all that is

necessary for second-language acquisition.

• Krashen pointed to studies showing that the length of time a

person stays in a foreign country is closely linked with his level

of language acquisition.

• Further evidence for input comes from studies on reading:

large amounts of free voluntary reading have a significant

positive effect on learners' vocabulary, grammar, and writing.

Interaction • According to Long's interaction hypothesis the conditions for

acquisition are especially good when interacting in the

second language.

• Conditions are good when a breakdown in communication

occurs and learners must negotiate for meaning.

• The modifications to speech arising from interactions like

this help make input more comprehensible, provide feedback

to the learner, and push learners to modify their speech.

Teacher Talk

It is the language used by teachers while addressing

their students. Heath (1982) also shows

that among teachers, caregiver talk carries into the mainstream

classroom.

• Modifications/simplifications in vocab, syntax and discourse

to accommodate learners’ proficiency level and to increase

comprehension.

• Shorter utterances, degree of subordination tends to be

lower, more declaratives and statements than questions,

more self-repetitions, grammatical well-formedness.

Teacher Talk Features

• Teachers tend to talk more in class with louder and more

distinct speech. Teachers are likely to take longer pauses

in speaking.

• Special teaching strategies such as repeating one's own

questions, repeating and expanding learners' answers

(recasts), as well as prompting answers (Gaies, 1977)

Teacher Talk Features

Teacher Talk Features • Metatalk. L2 teacher talk focused on L2 learning, which is

intimately linked with L2 language classroom, can also be

called metatalk (Faerch, 1985).

• Use of non-verbal support of the meanings that teachers

are communicating by means of gestures and visual aids

• Some teachers tend to use code-switching between L1 &

L2

Teacher Talk

• As learning context varies according to different L2 learning

situations, L2 teacher talk also varies in the degree to which

teachers focus on form or on meaning (Johnson, 1995).

• Teacher talk is supposed not only to provide the learners

with simplified L2 input, to help them understand L2 input,

but also, simultaneously, to manage L2 classroom learning

process (Majer & Majer, 1996).

Foreigner Talk The language used by native speakers while addressing non-native

speakers

• The feature which is most characteristic in foreigner talk, as

well as in caregiver talk, is its focus on communication with a

less proficient and less experienced language user (Snow &

Ferguson, 1977).

• Such a focus results in NS simplification at all language levels:

phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, in the slower

pace of speech, as well as in modifications of discourse

structure. Syntactic and semantic simplification may also

entail elaboration if, for example, a given vocab item is

paraphrased (Wesche, 1994).

Forigner Talk Features

• Although simplifications and adjustments to Non Native

Speakers level of comprehensibility have been discovered in

numerous studies, their amount, range and type vary and

depend on NSs' experience in communicating with NNSs,

their attitude towards NNSs, and their motivation to engage

in successful communicative exchanges (Wesche, 1994)

Forigner Talk Features

Bibliography

•http://chrisallenthomas.wetpaint.com/page/Teacher+Talk+vs.+Foreigner+Talk+%26+Caregiver+Talk

•http://teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/viewFile/504/335

THANKS

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