International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Aspects of Communication and Pedagogy: A Descriptive Analysis of EFLCollege Teacher-Student Interaction on Making Requests in Classroom Settings in Taiwan
Chiung-Chiuen Chen

Abstract
This study aims to examine college teacher-student interactional processes of making requests as well as how they respond to each other’s requests in the English as a foreign language classroom. This study was part of a larger study of unpublished doctoral dissertation (Chen, 2015),in which five English classes from five Chinese-speaking EFL college teachers in central Taiwan were observed, video-taped, and audio-taped. Findings showed that students responded to teachers’ requests by giving short or one-word answers, by keeping silent, or by using clarification requests, and teachers responded to their student’s requests by giving answers and feedback and making more requests. Further analysis found that teacher-student interaction on making requests and responses were affected by social factors. This study has theoretically and pedagogically significance. EFL college students have limited ability in making appropriate requests (e.g. making a clarification request) and responses in English. It is suggested that teachers consider EFL classrooms as a social communicative context similar to the contexts outside the classroom, and besides pedagogical purposes, it implies that teachers need to make requests and responses for communicative purposes in the classrooms.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijlc.v5n1a3