本研究主旨在探討教師在不同層級的兒童英語教室所具有語言的特徵。文中從二個角度來分析教師語言：句法及言談功能。藉著分析教師語言的形式及功能，期能暸解教師語言的內涵，幫助學生語言學習。 有三位兒童英語老師及三個不同層級的班級參與本研究,分別為初級，中級及高級。每位教師分別接受四節課之錄音，每一個層級選擇錄音最清晰的二節課予以轉成文字稿。經仔細檢視文稿後，每一層級選擇十五分鐘之語料做分析比較。以二項句法特徵及十一項言談功能來分析，記出其頻率，算出百分比及相關的統計方法。本研究的主要發現如下： (1) 教師語言平均語句的長度隨著層級愈高而增加。教師在初級的兒童 英語教室之平均句長為2.95，在中級教室為3.47，在高級教室為4.53。此顯示，教師隨著學生程度的增加而調整其語句長度。 (2) 教師語言的語法正確率在三個層級都很高。教師在初級教室的語法正確率最高為99.52%，其次為中級教室96.20%，最低為高級教室為94.21%。此顯示，教師給予學生相當正確的語言輸入(Input)。 (3) 教師語言的言談功能隨著層級的增加而不同。在十一項言談功能中，初級教室教師最常用的是練習(Drill)，中級教室教師最常用的功能是講解(Informative)，而高級教室教師用的最多的是發問(Elicitation)。 本研究亦提據結果提供以下的教學建議：教師應依學生程度的不同，調整其言談功能，同時教師需提供學生更多語言溝通的機會，培養學生語言溝通的能力。 / This study aims to investigate the characteristics of teacher talk in child EFL classrooms of different levels. Teacher talk is analyzed from two perspectives：syntactic and discourse. Three child language teachers and three classes of different levels participate in this study: the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Four units of each level are recorded. After initial screening, two units of each level are transcribed on the basis of intelligibility. By careful examination, only a portion lasting about ten to fifteen minutes at each level is selected for data analysis. Two formal characteristics--MLU (mean length of utterance) and grammaticality--are measured in syntactic analysis; and in discourse analysis, the function of teacher talk is analyzed. For syntactic analysis, teachers' MLU is counted; the grammaticality of teachers’speech is measured in the proportion of correct utterances to the total amount of utterances. For discourse analysis, teachers’utterances are categorized according to a discourse model adopted from Tsui (1985). Three major findings are found in this study. Firstly, teachers’ MLU increases as students’ proficiency increases. Teacher’ MLU at the elementary level is 2.95, at the intermediate level 3.47 and at the advanced level 4.53. It shows that teachers adjust their length of utterances to the proficiency level of students. Secondly, the grammaticality of teachers’ speech is very high in all the three classrooms. The grammaticality is 99.52% at the elementary level, 96.20% at the intermediate level and 94.21% at the advanced level. It shows that teachers provide students a very correct target language input. Thirdly, the functions of teacher talk are different at different levels. Among eleven functions, teachers use the function “Drill” most frequently in the elementary classroom, “Informative” in the intermediate classroom and“ Elicitation” in the advanced classroom. Two factors may be attributed as the cause the differences of teachers’ functions：the learners’ stage of development and the teaching method. Pedagogical implications are suggested according to the findings. Teachers are suggested to speak in such a way as to provide students with opportunities to speak in the target language if the purpose of teaching is to develop communicative ability.

It has been argued that teachers do not always teach in the ways their teacher education programs promoted. One cause of this problem has to do with teachers' conceptions about mathematics and ability being incompatible with the visions of mathematics that teacher educators promote. For example, teacher educators may emphasize the need for conceptual understanding but a teacher who equates understanding with being correct and fast will enact this goal differently from someone who expects students to be able to explain and communicate their understanding. The way a teacher understands what it means to do mathematics and be good at mathematics will influence their future teaching. Furthermore, the messages teachers send to their students about who they are as mathematical learners are full of messages about what it means to do and be good at mathematics. Additionally, these messages can have a long-term impact on how those students view themselves and the decisions they make for their future. This study uses qualitative methods to better understand pre-service teacher (PST) talk, how their talk relates, and how their talk changes over time. I describe PST talk as it relates to mathematics (M), ability (A), and themselves as mathematical learners (P) (the three components of the MAP framework). This study took place with the PSTs in two sections of a mathematical content course for elementary school teachers taught by the researcher. First, using grounded theory, I developed codes to understand how these PSTs talked in regards to the three components and applied these codes to written reflections at the beginning and end of our course. After analyzing the data I selected and interviewed 14 PSTs one year after our course. Again, I applied the same codes to their talk in the interview to see how their talk continued to change. Select interview PSTs were then chosen to represent common and uncommon examples of PST talk. Findings from this study show that talk across the MAP framework was related and that this talk became more standards-aligned by the end of the content course. However, the findings also provide a much more nuanced insight into different relationships and changes in talk. One finding shows that when variations in PST talk existed between framework components it was most commonly due to PSTs talking about mathematics in a more traditional way than when they talked about ability or themselves as mathematical learners. Another finding shows that during the interviews (one year after our course) PSTs continued to talk about themselves and abilities in mostly standards-aligned ways but reverted towards more traditional talk when discussing mathematics and how someone demonstrates their mathematical understanding. These findings have important implications for future research and for teacher educators. First, the relationships between the components of the MAP framework suggest that addressing PSTs conceptions of mathematics and their conceptions of ability may affect how they talk about individuals as mathematical learners. Second, the findings show which aspects in the MAP framework PSTs more readily talk about in standards-aligned ways. This provides insights into which areas teacher educators may want to emphasize more in trying to promote changes in PST talk. Lastly, these findings also show which aspects of PST talk maintain over a longer time frame and which aspects need a greater sustained emphasis. All of this is necessary as we support PSTs to think and talk about mathematics and mathematical abilities in standards-aligned ways that are truly supportive of all students.

<p>Teacher talk is a major way in which instructors support and provide scaffolding for their students, frame their pedagogies, model ways of thinking, and convey ideas. Effective teacher talk about engineering design at all levels of students’ educational experiences has the potential to better prepare students for success in engineering and increase the diversity of engineering fields. However, the most effective ways for teachers to talk to their students during engineering design are not well understood. This three-study dissertation examines the ways in which instructors use talk to interact with their students through a variety of different engineering design settings and contexts, with potential implications to improve and educate how teachers present engineering to their students. Overall, this thesis addresses the research question: How do instructors (teachers and professors) use talk interactions to scaffold students in engineering design? The first study is a case study that focuses on the whole class verbal interactions of an experienced and successful teacher throughout the entirety of a month-long life science-based STEM integration unit in a 6th grade classroom. Results show that this teacher’s talk helped to integrate engineering with the science and mathematics content of the unit and modeled the practices of informed designers to help students learn engineering in the context of their science classroom. He framed lessons around problem scoping, incorporated engineering ideas into scientific verbal interactions and aligned individual lessons and the overall unit with the engineering design process. The second study uses naturalistic inquiry to examine how six different teachers of 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades talked to their students while the students were actively working in small teams on engineering design projects. Results indicate that the teachers had conversations with the students about many areas of engineering, demonstrating that middle school teachers can have high-level conversations with their students about their design ideas. However, when students struggle to communicate their ideas, the different levels of support outlined in the coding framework and examples provide a structure of support for teachers to give their students. Additionally, there were many areas of engineering that were underemphasized in the teachers’ talk and each teacher had different emphasis. The third study examines how professors in mechanical and biomedical engineering talk to their students during introductory engineering design projects. Results show that the three professors used their talk to support their role as a guide and mentor to students during their projects, although they had different goals with their mentoring. They used their talk to push students’ ideas to consider their problems more broadly, encouraged students to brainstorm diverse out-of-the-box ideas, supported teaming, and modeled engineering language. They maintained a focus on non-technical content, including the iterative nature of design, teaming, and communication, but made references to how students would apply this knowledge in future, more technical projects. The professors supported many challenges for novice designers, including supporting prototype development to represent ideas and iterating to improve their ideas, but were not comprehensive in their support of other challenges, especially problem scoping, testing and troubleshooting, and reflecting on the process. The final chapter of this dissertation presents a synthesis across the three studies and a summary of the implications for teaching. These implications include many examples of high-quality engineering conversations with students at different levels of their education, identification of aspects of engineering education that are underemphasized in teachers’ talk to their students, and connections to needed areas of support and professional development for teachers.</p>

Given the explicit focus of compulsory schooling in Sweden on providing pupils with opportunities to develop their communicative abilities, all available resources should be utilised to their fullest potential - one of these resources being the way a teacher talks to and with their pupils, i.e., their teacher talk. Previous research in the field has had its focus on non-Swedish classroom contexts and has primarily considered the impacts of teacher talk on learners in secondary school or above. This study therefore set out to contribute to the field by observing Swedish EFL lessons for grades 4-6 and interviewing the teachers of these lessons. The observations show that different teacher-talk categories were employed at varied frequencies, some noticeably more widely represented than others. Additionally, valuable insight was gained from the interviews into teachers’ reflections on their didactic choices made regarding teacher talk. Some of the teachers’ choices correlated with those found in previous research, such as the rationale for direct translations from L2 to L1. On the other hand, it emerged that teachers perceived that some teacher-talk categories were utilised more in the higher grades, in contrast with the results noted in the observations of this study. This could suggest that teachers were not utilising all available resources effectively and possibly could benefit from further support and/or training in how to use their teacher talk consciously. To comprehensively evaluate which, to what extent, and why different teacher-talk categories are represented, further research should focus on a prolonged engagement in longitudinal studies of Swedish EFL classrooms representing a greater variety and number of schools as well as participating teachers.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / It has been noted by Lin (2013) that studies on multilingual talk, as illustrated by code switching in the classroom, have been repetitive and descriptive, and have for a while not been underpinned by substantially new or different questions (Lin, 2013:15). First, many of the studies in the literature have, for instance, concluded that there is a functional allocation of languages (FAL) in multilingual classroom teacher talk (e.g. Baker, 2012; Martin, 1996; Probyn, 2006, 2014; Jegede, 2012; Modupeola, 2013; Salami, 2008), such that language „a‟ is used for presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ is used for explanatory knowledge, and these claims have not been subjected to sustained scrutiny. Secondly, codeswtiching and translanguaging increasingly have been the dominant and exclusive frameworks used, and this has limited the kinds of insights that can be obtained or the kinds of questions that can be posed. / 2024

This study is inspired by a desire to revisit Anyon's Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work (1980) in a more contemporary context, one that responds to calls in the research on the socioeconomic achievement gap for deeper investigation into the heterogeneity of the middle class. More specifically, the research examines five middle class American high schools in Massachusetts, and asks the question, 'How is classroom 'work' different across these schools, thirty years after Anyon's study'? This study employs several methods of analysis including Anyon's ethnographic observational analysis and a corpus linguistic analysis. It also uses reflexive interviews to review initial findings and integrate participant input into the data itself. I also draw upon the data in light of previous frameworks to develop a new framework for looking at smaller differences in teacher talk, lessons and classroom instruction that is more fit for purpose. Through these ethnographic observations and reflexive interviews, this study reveals that even across schools that are considered to belong to the same socioeconomic class - the middle class - differences in instruction and lessons can be clearly observed. The body of literature discussing the middle class, in terms of the diversity within it, is very small, this extensive study contributes to this knowledge, and hopefully creates avenues for further research. Using Anyon's approach of observing 'work' across social class in classrooms this research builds on Anyon's findings in a contemporary context. Insight into the ways in which difference manifests in smaller ways in the classroom may be fundamental in understanding how small differences compound across the socioeconomic spectrum. The impact of this research on the socioeconomic achievement gap is a better, more complete, look at the picture of how the distribution of resources across the socioeconomic spectrum plays a role in classroom differences.

This study examines and describes the nature of questioning moves used by two exemplary fourth-grade teachers during reading instruction. Questioning moves are defined in this study as the ways in which teachers use scaffolding questions to engage students in talk about text. Another point of interest in this study was to determine how teachers perceive the influence of instructional materials on the language they use to engage students in talk about text. This study was situated within a constructivist paradigm of inquiry and drew from the case study tradition for its design. Naturalistic methods of data collection were employed including transcripts of teacher and student talk, field notes, videotapes, and interviews with the teachers. Data analysis was conducted in two stages. First data were analyzed separately within each case to locate emerging patterns to build each teacher's profile. Then data were juxtaposed for the purpose of comparison to illuminate similarities and differences in patterns that cut across cases. In general, results show that while questioning moves used by exemplary fourth-grade teachers are different, they are simple and subtle. The questioning moves used provided scaffolding for the purpose of increasing the students' responsibility for constructing meaning from text and signaled teachers' high expectations in their students' ability to read and interact with text. Teachers' use of questioning moves was determined by the instructional focus and hinged on the nature, intensity, and support of their professional development opportunities and experiences. Additional findings, indirectly related to teachers' use of questioning moves, and the influences on their use, were themed around the nature of attention that teachers gave to their classroom environment and instructional design. Implications of the results of this study for reading teachers and educators are themed around issues of professional development and time.

This study examined the differences and patterns for three categories between an argument-based inquiry group and a traditional group over the period of the SWH (Science Writing Heuristic) project: (1) teacher talk time, (2) structure of questions (question types), and (3) student responses. The participating teachers were chosen randomly by a convenient sampling method because the data were collected previously from the SWH project. Each group had thirty teachers. A total of sixty teachers participated in the study. Student responses were part of the study to evaluate the effect of open-ended question types but students were not direct participants in the study. Each teacher was asked to send a recorded video clip of their class at the end of each semester (spring and fall) over two years. Each teacher sent four video clips for the project. A total of two hundred forty video clips was analyzed to gather the information regarding the three categories. The first category was teacher talk time. It was measured in seconds only when teachers interacted with students with the topic. The second category was the structure of questions (question types). It consisted of two question types (open-ended and close-ended). Under the open-ended question category, there were three sub-question types: (1) asking for explanation (AE), (2) asking for self-evaluation of reasoning (AF), and (3) asking for self-evaluation of others' reasoning (AFO). Under the close-ended question category, there were two sub-question types: (1) asking for factual information (AI) and (2) asking for confirmation (AC). Each sub- question type was counted numerically. The last category was student responses. Student responses consisted of higher-order thinking and lower-order thinking. Under the higher-order thinking category, there were three sub-types: (1) explanation responses (E), (2) self-evaluation of reasoning responses (SE), and (3) self-evaluation of others' reasoning responses (SEO). Under the lower-order thinking category, there was one sub-type: simple responses (S). Each sub type was counted numerically. Based on the descriptive results (the length of teacher talk time in seconds, the number of question types, and the number of student responses), repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to find any differences and patterns for teacher talk time, structure of questions and student responses between the treatment and control groups over the period of the project and across time (four different time points). The results showed that there were clear differences for teacher talk time, the structure of questions, and student responses between the treatment and control groups over the period of the project and across time. The treatment group teachers talked less and used more open-ended questions than the control group teachers. The treatment group students displayed more higher-order thinking responses than the control group students.

當母語者與非母語者在進行溝通時，母語者通常會使用較為簡化的語言形式，此種語言形式研究者稱之為「調整語」。本文旨在探討在台灣的成人美語教室中，外籍教師針對不同程度的學生，使用調整語的情形，文中主要從「句法」與「言談功能」兩個角度分析外籍教師的語言使用。 有三位教授中、高級美語會話的外籍教師參與本研究，每位教師於不同層級的課堂各接受兩次錄音，總計收集到18小時的錄音語料，351頁的逐字稿，全數經過分析比較後，主要發現如下： (1) 外籍教師之語言平均句長並未隨著學生程度越高而有顯著增加。外籍教師在中級教室之平均句長為8.197，在高級教室為8.388，p>0.05。此結果顯示，當學生程度到達中級以上，「句長上的調整」似乎不再是外籍教師採用的調整方式。 (2) 外籍教師之語法正確率在兩個層級都非常高。外籍教師在中級教室之語法正確率為99.81%，在高級教室為99.79%，在兩個層級都僅有10個錯誤句子，透過錯誤類型分析，發現中級教室中出現較多句法層面上的錯誤，而篇章層面的錯誤則全出現在高級教室中。 (3) 外籍教師之言談功能會隨學生層級不同而有調整。外籍教師在中級教室中給予較多主動的語言輸入、提供較多的發問，主要功能為傳輸語言知識；在高級教室中，教師減低發言的比例，使用較多的回饋功能。 綜合以上研究結果發現，英語為母語之外籍教師在上課時面臨不同語言程度的非母語對話者有不同的語言調整方式，在中、高級程度的班級上，「句法上的調整」不再是外籍教師的主要考量，而轉向採用「語言功能上的調整」，在教學應用上，儘管隨著學生層級的增加，外籍教師減少了「主動語言輸入」功能，而採用較多的「語言回饋」功能，但整體而言，學生發言的比例仍然偏低（中級教室9.93%；高級教室12.15%），教師應給予學生更多的口語練習機會，採用更多的回饋機制，以增加學生之溝通能力。 / When addressing to non-native speaker, native speakers will modify his speech to what he thinks is simpler and easier for the non-native listener to comprehend. Such simplified register is referred to as “Foreigner Talk.” The present study aims to explore both the syntactic and discourse characteristics of FT in Taiwan’s adult English classrooms. Three measurements (1) syntactic complexity (2) grammaticality and (3) discourse functions are adopted to investigate if the interlocutor’s language proficiency affects the foreigner teacher’s language use. The data were collected from 18-hour recording of three English native speakers’ utterances in intermediate and advanced classrooms. The major findings of this study are summarized as follows: (1) In terms of syntactic complexity, the mean words per t-unit at both levels are very similar with 8.197 at the intermediate level, and 8.388 at the advanced level. The result of t-test (p>0.05) also indicates that no significant difference is found concerning the language complexity between the two levels. It is suggested that the adjustment of language complexity may only resort to students with lower proficiency. Once the student’s proficiency goes beyond a specific level, the length of teacher’s utterances will keep in a fixed range. (2) In terms of grammaticality, over 99.79% of the foreigners’ utterances are grammatical sentences in both language classrooms, showing that the foreigners’ language form is quite accurate. By analyzing the 20 ungrammatical utterances, it reveals that the foreigner teachers are more likely to utilize the syntactic adjustment for the lower level learners and conserve the discourse adjustment for the more advanced ones. (3) In terms of discourse functions, Sinclair and Coulthard’s model (1992) is modified to categorize the functions of the foreigners’ utterances. It is found that the distribution of the functions varies with the development of the students’ language ability. The foreigner teachers use significantly more initiation functions to the intermediate students and provide much more responsive functions for the advanced students. Based on the findings of this study, some pedagogical implications are addressed. It is suggested that teachers should pay more attention to their language use and consider if their adjustments of language really enhance language learning. In order to increase the learning potential, teachers are recommended to employ more judicious silence, to reduce the percentage of teacher-initiated utterances and to resist the temptation to interrupt. Also, teachers should realize that they are not only an instructor but also an interlocutor for their students at the same time. By realizing the dual roles as being a language teacher, the teacher can make language class less artificial and help learners to overcome the gap between communication in and outside the classroom.

Framed by Social Constructivist theories of learning, this project employed a descriptive case study approach to investigate the types of social and verbal interactions that occurred as four Reading Recovery teachers worked with their respective students to devise and record a brief message during the 10-12 minute writing section of a Reading Recovery lesson. Data was collected over a period of two months and each teacher was observed working with the same student on two separate occasions. The conversations that transpired were audiotaped and transcribed and the cognitive and affective dimensions of the teachers’ communications were specifically examined. Findings indicate that effective teaching interactions more often arose when the teachers continually endeavored to understand the meanings behind their students’ words and actions. When teachers considered their students’ perspectives, when they gave them cognitive space to think, speak, and act, and when they designed literacy activities that centered on children’s demonstrated understandings, they ensured their students’ continued motivation thereby fostering cognitive development.