A Study of Teacher’s Intertextual Talk in an EFL Class

• Main Authors: Fan-Chi Cho, 卓芳綺
• Other Authors: Feng-Ming Chi
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30351923004125351894

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 英語教學研究所 === 104 === Intertextuality refers to the relations among the texts, authors, and readers. It is suggested that readers work to build up intertextual links with texts to comprehend them more deeply. The links constructed by readers can be related to their personal experiences and other related texts, including non-print sources. Once the links are built, the discourse produced by the focal individuals is termed intertextual talk. Intertextual talk benefits EFL learners by establishing links among their learning experiences. It develops connections between learners and the text, which enables them to negotiate the meaning of the text through their background knowledge and what they have learned in class. This study aimed to examine when and how a middle school EFL teacher used intertextual talk to provide comprehensible input and interacted with learners, and the roles the teacher played in the focal class. A middle school teacher with 32 first graders participated in this study. The learners have an intermediate level of English proficiency based on the test results from school, and were required to speak English in the English class. The class was observed and video-taped for three months, and data were collected from the participants’ discourse, oral interviews, and field notes taken during classroom observations. These data were examined according to Boyd and Maloof’s (2000) five categories of intertextual links. The preliminary findings indicated that the contents influenced the usage of intertextual links, applied different types of intertextual links and played diverse teacher roles to scaffold learners’ learning according to her pedagogical goals for each teaching material. Nevertheless, no matter in what context, classroom community links served as a positive force for enhancing the students’ engagement in classroom discussions. In contrast, personal links provoke little classroom interaction, but can be beneficial in prompting the classroom community links which enable the teacher and students to generate longer discussions. In addition, a clarifier and reflector were effective in aiding the teacher to help the students better understand the text.