College EFL teachers’ beliefs in making requests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.74.8144Keywords:
Keywords: teacher belief, requesting behavior, making a request, direct request, indirect request.Abstract
This study examined college EFL teachers’ beliefs in their making requests in the classrooms. In this study, the methods for data-collection included a questionnaire, classroom observation, and an in-depth interview. A pre-observation questionnaire was administrated for collecting the information on teacher belief in the use of request types, and why and when teachers made these requests. Five EFL teachers and one of their respective English classes at university in Taiwan were invited to participate in the present study. Over a 4-week period, a total of 40 sessions of teaching, 50 minutes each, were observed, video-taped, and audio-taped. Afterwards, an interview was conducted. The data collected were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. Findings showed that all teachers reported their uses of both direct and indirect requests. Also, all teachers made their requests for some specific reasons and at some specific point of time. It is suggested that teachers be aware of their uses of requests. Teachers’ awareness of their uses of different types of requests may help promote teacher-student interaction.
References
[2]. Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (Eds.). (1989a). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
[3]. Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989b). Investigating cross-cultural pragmatics: An introductory overview. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (Eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (pp.1-34). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
[4]. Borg, M. (2001). Key concepts in ELT: Teachers’ beliefs. ELT Journal, 55(2), 186-188.
[5]. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6]. Çakmak, M. (2009). Pre-service teachers’ thoughts about teachers’ questions in effective teaching process. Elementary Education Online, 8(3), 666-675.
[7]. Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning. Oxford: Heinemann.
[8]. Chang, I. S. (2009). An English teacher’s beliefs and practices about classroom interaction and questioning: A case study. Unpublished MA thesis. National Chengchi University, Taiwan, R. O. C.
[9]. Chapman, S. (2011). Pragmatics. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
[10]. Chaudron, C. (1988). Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11]. Chen, C. C. & Tseng, D. S. D. (2013). Requesting behaviors in the college EFL classrooms: A Pilot Study. Paper presented at the 1st International Conference on English Language Teaching: ELT in a Globalization Era, held in Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan. November 22, 2013.
[12]. Chen, C.-F. (2011). A study of EFL teachers’ beliefs in questioning strategy use in industrial vocational senior high schools. Unpublished MA thesis, Providence University, Taiwan, R. O. C.
[13]. Dalton-Puffer, C. (2005). Negotiating interpersonal meanings in naturalistic classroom discourse: directives in content and language integrated classrooms. Journal of Pragmatics, 37, 1275-1293.
[14]. Doughty, C., & Pica, T. (1986). Information gap tasks: Do they facilitate second language acquisition? TESOL Quarterly, 20, 305-325.
[15]. Fives, Helenrose, and M. G. Gill, (Eds). (2014). International Handbook of Research on Teachers’ Beliefs. UK: Routledge
[16]. LoCastro, V. (2012). Pragmatics for language educators: A sociolinguistic perspective. New York: Routledge
[17]. Schauer, G. (2006). Pragmatic awareness in ESL and EFL contexts: Contrast and
development. Language Learning, 56(2), 269-318.
[18]. Searle, J. R. (1975a). A taxonomy of illocutionary acts. In J. R. Searle, Expression and meaning, 1979 (pp. 1-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[19]. Trosberg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints and apologies. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
[20]. Yang, X.-J. (2009). Pragmatic development in a second language: A cross-sectional study on the acquisition of English requests by Chinese learners. Beijing: Defense Industry Press.
[21]. Zuengler, J. (2011). Many lessons from a school: What classroom discourse analysis
reveals. Language Teaching, 44(1), 55-63
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
