Impact of teachers' linguistic choices on ESL students' verbal participation in selected secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Oladunni Deji-Afuye; Sindiso Zhou

doi:10.56285/jltVol59iss1a6318

Oladunni Deji-Afuye University of Fort Hare, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0468-5620
Sindiso Zhou University of Fort Hare, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4267-8456

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56285/jltVol59iss1a6318

Keywords: classroom interaction, linguistic featuers, discourse, linguistic choice, English as a second language, pedagogy, classroom practice, verbal participation

Abstract

This study investigated the linguistic choices made by teachers and their effects on students’ verbal participation in English as a second language classroom interaction in selected secondary schools in Ekiti state in Nigeria. The study used a mixed methods approach and followed a case study as well as a descriptive research design. The approaches were triangulated to analyse extracts from 20 recorded classroom lessons and teacher interviews. The findings showed that the linguistic choices of teachers during classroom interactions significantly affected the classroom discourse structure and students’ verbal participation. The teachers’ linguistic choices were primarily made to accomplish the tasks of teaching the content and, as such, teachers were engaged mostly in initiating classroom exchanges, giving feedback, and keeping the interactions under control to the extent that students were mainly engaged to provide limited verbal responses to teacher initiations and directives. The study recommended teachers’ further professional training to enhance their discourse and pedagogical practices, provision of language teaching/learning resources and conducive classroom environments by the government. The development of applicable language policy and curriculum that facilitates rich classroom interactions and the development of student’s communication proficiency was also recommended to be the main focus of the Ministry of Education.

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Author Biographies

Oladunni Deji-Afuye, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Oladunni O. Deji-Afuye is a postgraduate student in the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa. Her research areas are English language pedagogy, language contact, classroom discourse, interaction analysis, bilingualism and multilingualism. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistics in the School of Humanities in the College of Education at the University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria.

Sindiso Zhou, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Dr Sindiso Zhou is a senior lecturer in the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. Her research interests are in language contact, English language pedagogy, multilingualism, multilingual writing, translanguaging, higher education, onomastics, and interconnections of discourses of gender and communication in society.

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