1. CLASSROOM RESEARCH
Research in Second Language Acquisition
PBGS 6113 Med TESL University of Malaya
Semester 1 2011/2012
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Facilitator

2. LEE
HUAN YIK SHARILA
PUSHPA
KANDASAMY PGP110012 CHRISTIE
PGP110002 PGP110003
GROUP 2
MEMBERS –
TITLE: CLASSROOM
RESEARCH – PART 2

3. CLASSROOM RESEARCH : INTERACTION ANALYSIS
2. 3.
1. DESIGNING SIGNIFICANCE
YOUR OWN INTERPRETING
CLASSROOM OF
CLASSROOM CLASSROOM
RESEARCH RESEARCH
RESEARCH
4. REFLECTING
ON
5. SUMMARY
CLASSROOM
RESEARCH

4. 1. DESIGNING YOUR OWN
CLASSROOM RESEARCH
CLARIFYING
YOUR
BELIEFS,
PICKING PICKING A PICKING A
YOUR TOPIC TECHNIQUE
TENETS

5.  beliefs about good teaching
 beliefs about effective learning
 Views are shared and many axioms are built
Eg: Axiom – saying / statement
 learners learn more effectively when given positive
feedback (praise, approval) than negative feedback
(criticism, disapproval).

6. Research reports…….
 Positive evidence (Rosenshine and Frust, 1973)
 Negative evidence (Long, 1983)
 - clarify tenets (theories/ beliefs)
- how such tenets could shape the research
*useful, relevant, effective, applicable…..

7. Picking a topic……
 Teacher- focused topics
-beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, methodologies,
approaches, techniques, classroom management etc…
 learner-focused topics
-Learning styles, motivation, academic performance ,etc
Topic – based on the problem encountered/observed
Suggestions / ideas – future / further studies
Limitations of the study

8. 2. Findings –all the
participants used their L1
1. Topic- L1 use during L2
while writing
writing
argumentative essays in
their L2 to some extent.
Article
Example 1:
3. Limitation – only
4. Future research –
included tasks in a single
including a few genres –
genre (argumentative) –
(persuasive, expository,
impossible to generalize
narrative etc)
the finding across genres.

9. 1. Topic-value of written
2. Samples – intermediate
corrective feedback (WCF) to
level
improve writing performance
Article
Example 2:
3. Findings –WCF helped 4. Future research – WCF
students to improve their might apply to students from
accuracy in the use of two other proficiency levels –
functional uses of the English advanced, elementary, pre-
article system (a, the). intermediate

10. Classroom However, Others:-
observations – Allwright 1988, interviews,
instrument Day 1990 & questionnaires,
(1960’s & Nunan 1989 action research,
1970’s) had positive case studies,
Challenging, overviews – L2 stimulated
time research recall, etc
consuming,

11. 2. Interpreting Classroom Research
1. Classroom interactions
2. Researcher’s observations
3. Recorded as Data
4. Selected for Analysis
5. Extracts for reporting
6. Features for focus
7. Features as Evidence for interpretation

12. CAUTION

13. Initiation-
Response- Observational
Feedback (IRF) Instrument
Model

14. Observational Instrument
 The I-R-F model is the most common.
 Initiation-Response-Feedback
Types of Wait Response Feedback In-class
Questions time instances

15. 3. Significance of Classroom Research
Areas of Major Influence on Discussions of
Language Pedagogy
a) Teacher-student interaction
b) Student-student interaction
c) Student-text interaction (reader engaged in
interactive dialogue between author and
reader)

16. Teacher-student
Interactions
Teacher controls discourse
(grammatically-correct & socially-
appropriate forms) to foster L2
learning/acquisition.

17. • Student-student interaction
• Cooperative learning
• language acquisition
• -adjust to appropriate level of listeners
• -Vygotsky’s ZPD’-developmentally appropriate’
• Eg. In small group discussions,learners develop
from short term comprehension to long-term
acquisition

18. 4. Reflecting On Classroom Research
Possible reasons for classroom interaction research :
1.Universal 2. Importance
3. Unsettling
Experience Of Educational
Findings
Improvement
4. Uniqueness Of 5. Further Professionalization
Second Language Classes Of Teaching

19. Reflecting On Classroom Research
6. Bridging The Theory-
7.The Durability Of
Practice Gap
Classroom Patterns
8.Classrooms As Ideal
9. Homegrown Nature Of
Environments For The
Classroom Research
Study Of Talk
10. Context For Many Current
Controversies

20. Reflecting On Classroom Research
1. Universal
Experience
 Veteran observer – spent many years as classroom learner
 An expert about a topic and interesting to know deeper.

21. Reflecting On Classroom Research
2. Importance
Of Educational
Improvement
 Occupies the biggest budgets of most governmental agencies
regardless of schooling location & subject of instruction.
 Therefore, there is always movements to improve delivery of education
to make classroom interaction more efficient, effective & inspiring.

22. Reflecting On Classroom Research
3. Unsettling
Findings
 Teacher talk took up most of the interactional time.
 Teacher ask questions to which answers already
known.

23. Reflecting On Classroom Research
4.Uniqueness Of
Second Language
Classes
 Research in second language classrooms shares many
same interest and techniques of inquiry with research
in other subject area classrooms.
 Unique- both medium and content of instruction
provides special challenges and the opportunity.

24. Example 1
 Tan, B. T. (2011) suggests that for learners’ language to
develop in complexity, conditions need to be set,
requiring them to access the L2 directly to construct
new ideas and that opportunities are needed for both
L2 forms and meaning to co-evolve. Here the
conditions set are considered unique.

25. Reflecting On Classroom Research
5.Further
Professionalization
Of Teaching
 growing interest – involvement of classroom teacher in
the process of research.
 This trends include school based curriculum
development, field based teacher preparation and
professional self-evaluation projects.

26. Reflecting On Classroom Research
6. Bridging The
Theory- Practice Gap
 Goals to narrow the gap between theory and practice,
allowing teachers to become enthusiastic producers &
consumers of educational research.

27. Example 2
 Gilmore, A. (2009) explains that
participants were able to improve their
writing after 90-minutes training session
using online corpora and it was beneficial.
Hence, online resources are tools that can be
used to bridge the theory-practice gap to
improve or develop writing skills.

28. Reflecting On Classroom Research
7.The Durability Of
Classroom patterns
 Classroom looked same for last 1,000 years.
 Despite changes in content, technologies, methods, educational
priorities & professionalization of teaching, school classroom &
activities in classroom not much change but the role and orientation
of teacher and learners have maintained.

29. Reflecting On Classroom Research
8.Classrooms As Ideal
Environments For The
Study Of Talk
 Classroom feature- attractive environment for the study of talk.
 Ethographers examine how talk systematically patterned in ways that
reveal, or define & how speakers perceive their relationships and
situations.
 Classrooms represent a strongly marked local social system, allowing
researcher intimate looks at language which marks relationships &
situations

30. Example 3
 Frazier, S. (2007) describes the sequential
structures of a kind of talk typical to group work.
The study analyzes video data of naturally
occurring interactions between students in writing
classes, draws its theoretical basis from
conversation-analytic literature on ‘second stories’
and on analytic approaches to the way talk,
gesture, and other forms of embodiment produce
action in the course of interaction.

31. Reflecting On Classroom Research
9.Homegrown Nature
Of Classroom Research
 Many techniques comes from outside the field of applied linguistics.
 Studies of classroom talk, educational researchers acknowledge that initial
impetus in investigations of classrooms talk come not from educational
researchers but applied linguistics like Hymes, Gumperz, Sinclair and
Coulthhard.
 Critical study of classroom interaction can be said home-grown.

32. Example 4
 Firkins, Forey and Sengupta, (2007) explains
about a genre-based literacy pedagogy which can
be used with English language learners. The
method use is involved a combination of two
explicit teaching methodologies, a genre-based
and activity based pedagogical approach. The
pedagogy was introduced in an English Club at a
local Hong Kong school. It was found that a genre-
based is suitable for educational context to low
proficiency EFL learners. Here the genre-based is a
home-grown tool in explicit teaching
methodology.

33. Reflecting On Classroom Research
10.Context For Many
Current Controversies
 Educational psychologist, second language specialist,
social anthropologist, linguist..etc all assert a multiplicity
of views on how classroom interaction research should be
carried out both within their own areas of specialization
and wider context of teaching and learning generally.

34. PUSHPA KANDASAMY

35. References
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Firkins, A., Forey, G. & Sima Sengupta, (2007). Teaching writing
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