A study of the relationship between teacher ways of speaking and student responses
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1978
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study explores the relationship between teacher ways of speaking and student responses in two junior secondary schools in Trinidad. The following relationships are examined: 1) code switching in the questioning and responding of teachers and student responses, and 2) the tones that accompanied the questioning and responding and student responses. The speech of teachers and students is also analysed according to race and sex. Analysis of classroom observation data showed that: 1) the teachers observed used much more Trinidad Standard English (TSE) in the classroom; 2) they used TSE mainly for asking teacher-initiated cognitive questions and further probe cognitive questions, while TCE was used mainly for asking further probe cognitive questions and classroom control questions; 3) there was no significant difference between the responses that students made generally to the two codes of teacher questioning and responding; 4) there appeared to be no significant differences among the responses that students made to the encouraging, discouraging, and joking tones of teacher questioning and responding when teachers used the two codes; however, when the teacher's tone was serious, there appeared to be some relationship in student responses to the two codes; 5) Indian female teachers used more TSE than other groups of teachers; and 6) the teachers generally used TCE for more discouraging purposes than TSE