What Roles Do Teacher Talk and Learner Talk Play in the Second Language Acquisition Classroom?

In the realm of language teaching, the interaction between teachers and students holds immense significance. It not only encourages learners to use the target language as a means of communication but also serves as a bridge to effective language acquisition. In this context, the teacher assumes the roles of facilitator and resource person within the second language classroom.

The primary responsibility of a teacher in this setting is to foster a positive learning environment and design activities that enable students to engage with and practice the target language in a meaningful way. Furthermore, the teacher serves as a language model, continuing to be the primary point of contact for students. Therefore, using teacher talk effectively becomes crucial in expediting the learning process.

The role of the learner has also evolved in the second language classroom, with student talk playing a pivotal role. Student talk not only helps the teacher assess what students have learned but also how they have learned and what areas they still need to explore.

It is widely acknowledged that ‘comprehensible input’ is essential for enhancing students’ language proficiency. Teacher talk should be carefully moderated to ensure that students pay attention to the initial input. The teacher should employ teacher talk in an engaging yet compelling manner to facilitate optimal language acquisition.

According to Stephen Krashen’s ‘Input Hypothesis,’ second language learners “progress along the natural order by understanding input that contains structures that are a bit beyond their current level of competence.” This hypothesis posits that unknown structures are grasped with the assistance of background information. Therefore, teachers of English must pay close attention to the initial input and teacher talk to enhance their students’ speaking skills. The spoken language is a vital tool in modern communication, making teacher talk the primary source of student information and a key factor in monitoring students’ progress.

Interaction is another essential phase in the language acquisition process, significantly enhancing learners’ speaking and listening abilities. It represents a social process of meaning-making and interpretation. The Interaction Hypothesis, introduced by Michael Long, emphasizes that conversational interaction “facilitates language acquisition because it connects input (what learners hear and read), internal learner capacities (particularly selective attention), and output (what learners produce) in productive ways.”

In the language classroom, both teacher talk and student talk are critical for managing the class and processing language. They have both a direct and indirect impact on students. Encouraging, praising, using students’ ideas, repeating their words, and asking questions directly affect learners. Similarly, certain aspects of teacher talk, such as presenting new ideas, correcting mistakes constructively, giving directions, and offering feedback, have a direct impact on students. On the other hand, student talk is vital in collective interactions like discussions, questioning, negotiating meaning, clarifying understanding, and making ideas coherent to their classmates.

Output, representing language production, also plays a crucial role in second language acquisition. At first, output may still occur in the native language, as comprehension precedes production. However, as learners acquire the target language, their output will increasingly be in the target language.

Merrill Swain proposed the Output Hypothesis, suggesting that input alone is insufficient for language acquisition. Learners need to be encouraged to communicate using the target language accurately, comprehensibly, and appropriately. Encouraging learners to articulate coherent messages helps them identify knowledge gaps in their interlanguage system. Additionally, encouraging them to use the target language for low-level tasks, such as asking questions and discussing ideas, can accelerate their language acquisition process. Swain identifies three functions related to the Output Hypothesis:

1. The noticing/triggering function.
2. The hypothesis-testing function.
3. The metalinguistic (reflective) function.

According to Swain, learners come to understand what they know and don’t know during language production. This realization often occurs when learners want to convey a message but lack sufficient linguistic knowledge in the target language to do so. At that moment, learners grasp the structures and vocabulary needed to express their intended message. Consequently, they become aware of existing knowledge gaps and may be motivated to improve their output by correcting mistakes.

In conclusion, both teacher talk and student talk play vital roles in all three phases of language learning. The ultimate goal of learning a second language is to effectively use it for various communicative purposes. Both teacher talk and student talk provide opportunities for meaningful practice, fostering the development of automatic linguistic behaviors.