Teaching questioning speech acts within cognitive-communicative paradigm: interdisciplinary integration

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State institution “South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named alter K.D. Ushynsky”

Teaching questioning speech acts within cognitive-communicative paradigm: interdisciplinary integration

T.Ye. Yeremenko, PhD in Philology, Professor

I.O. Lukyanchenko, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor

Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of developing professional speech skills in advanced university students - prospective English teachers. The authors argue a vivid potential of the integrated research project aimed at raising in students awareness of effective teacher speech acts in the English language classroom. The “Questioning Speech Acts: Teaching Challenges" project was realized within the course “Theory and practice of speech communication” and students' teaching practice. Questioning speech acts are prioritized in view of their role in the classroom discourse. The purpose of this article is to present the results of the experience teaching questioning speech acts by combining linguistic instruction and practice in professional context through linking knowledge and professional skills acquisition with research work. The study presented is a fragment of the complex investigation aimed at increasing master degree (MA) students' awareness of questioning techniques as an important element of classroom discourse. The data were collected with the help of the following methods: observations, analysis of the students' learning activity results, interviews, questionnaires, mathematical processing of obtained data. MA students were to carry out a mini-research within the joint teacher-student project work which comprised 3 stages. Working at the project students were to clarify the following questions: the proportion of questioning speach acts (QSAs) as compared with other speech acts in the EL classroom discourse; QSAs used by native EFL teachers in the classroom discourse with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage; QSAs primarily used by students-practice teachers in the classroom; popular QSAs with practice teachers with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage. Students were also to assess knowledge and practical skills developed while their working at the project. The point of interest of this research mini-project is its integrated and practically-oriented character provided by cognitive-communicative approach with students learning via cognition and learning via experience in developing QSAs awareness. The experiment results testify the efficacy of the experimental study for MA students' considerable increase of the proficiency in questioning as an important element of classroom discourse. Work at the project helped students to transform the acquired knowledge to new ways of verbal behaviour, to model successful communication in the EL classroom using questioning techniques, to modify their cognitive teaching styles. Findings of this research yield positive outcomes for developing in university students - prospective English teachers - awareness regarding how language is best taught in ELT classroom.

Keywords: questioning speech acts, prospective EL teachers, research mini-project, integration, cognitive-communicative paradigm.

Анотація

НАВЧАННЯ ПИТАЛЬНИХ МОВЛЕННЄВИХ АКТІВ У КОНТЕКСТІ КОГНІТИВНО-КОМУНІКАТИВНОЇ ПАРАДИГМИ: МІЖДИСЦИПЛІНАРНА ІНТЕГРАЦІЯ

Т.Є. Єременко, І.О. Лук'янченко

У статті автори розкривають значний потенціал інтегрованого дослідницького проекту для підготовки студентів - майбутніх викладачів англійської мови - до вербальної взаємодії між вчителем та учнем на занятті з англійської мови. Увагу сфокусовано на питальних мовленнєвих актах як пріоритетних з огляду на їх домінуючу роль у реалізації дидактичного дискурсу. Метою представленої наукової розвідки є опис результатів експериментального навчання, спрямованого на оволодіння студентами магістратури вміннями формулювати та успішно використовувати питальні мовленнєві акти у дидактичному дискурсі. Представлене дослідження здійснювалося в рамках комплексного дослідження, спрямованого на підвищення грамотності студентів магістратури в реалізації питальних мовленнєвих актів для ефективного будування власної мовленнєвої поведінки на занятті з англійської мови. Дані були зібрані за допомогою таких методів: спостереження, аналіз результатів навчальної діяльності студентів, інтерв'ю, анкетування, математична обробка отриманих даних. Автори описують організацію навчальної діяльності студентів під час роботи над дослідницьким мініпроєктом «Питальні висловлювання: як, коли, для чого», який був реалізований на основі зінтегрованого змісту курсу «Теорія та практика мовної комунікації» та виробничої практики. Проєкт був зорієнтований на спільну роботу викладача та студента, та реалізовувався в 3 етапи, кожний з яких передбачав стадію аналізу, стадію обговорення отриманих результатів та стадію продукції. Проєкт мав такі особливості: міждисциплінарний та практично орієнтований характер, розвиток когнітивної сфери студентів, підвищення грамотності студентів у реалізації питальних мовленнєвих актів в контексті когнітивно-комунікативної парадигми, навчання через когніцію, навчання через досвід. Результати оцінки ефективності описаної системи роботи свідчать про позитивний вплив інтегрованого дослідницького мініпроєкту на мовленнєвий репертуар студентів - майбутніх викладачів англійської мови. Робота над проєктом сприяла формуванню у студентів системи інтегрованих знань, засвоєнню ними когнітивних принципів побудови дидактичного дискурсу, розвитку умінь його аналізу з метою дослідження можливого впливу питальних мовленнєвих актів на учня, вдосконаленню вмінь формулювати та успішно використовувати питальні мовленнєві акти у вербальній взаємодії між вчителем та учнєм, вдосконаленню власного стилю викладання.

Ключові слова: питальні мовленнєві акти, майбутні вчителі англійської мови, дослідницький мініпроєкт, інтеграція, комунікативно-когнітивна парадигма.

Introduction

Within reorganization processes in the contemporary Ukrainian educational system integration becomes especially important. Interdisciplinary integration as a means of education allows prioritizing active and independent cognitive activity to readymade knowledge, combining the content of two or more subjects or realizing interdisciplinary connections within overlapping themes, problems, etc., and as a purpose of education allows creating in students an integrated view of their future profession. It should be emphasized that integration is relevant for prospective FL teacher professional training. Referring to the FL teacher professional competence the focus is on their speech development within a modern cognitive-communicative teaching para-digm. The given article is intended to describe an integration potential of the research work realized in the form of project aimed at forming students' awareness of EL teacher's speech acts in classroom discourse.

Recent researches and publications. Recent researches revealed scientists' interest in the issues connected with teaching speech acts in English as a foreign language. Fujimori & Houck (2004) propose activities for teaching advice-giving speech acts. Tatsuki & Houck (2010) stress the importance of the context of the speech acts in the learning process and suggest a variety of interactive tasks to facilitate students' practicing concrete acts. Can (2011) suggests the explicit teaching of the speech acts of complaint and refusal on the basis of drama. The scientists mentioned put strong emphasis on the necessity of instructing students as to the speech acts form. Zeff (2016) also suggests a complex of interactive tasks for teaching speech acts focusing on greetings. The issue of teaching speech acts in the English as a foreign language classroom has not been given due attention to. Thus, the point of interest of the present article is developing in MA students' - prospective EL teachers, awareness of questioning speech acts (QSAs) as an important element of classroom discourse.

The purpose of this article is to share the results of the experience teaching QSAs realized in the form of project in advanced university students - prospective English teachers.

English Language and Literature MA program includes the course “Theory and practice of speech communication”. The content of the course covers a range of core issues with specific reference to analysis of communication phenomena from different perspectives. The course synthesizes approaches of the theory of speech activity, functional theory of the language, discourse analysis, pragmatics, etc. Classroom discourse being specifically important for EFL teaching is given special focus within the course.

Noteworthy is the fact that teacher's verbal activity coincides with the traditional understanding of speech acts presented in Austin's work [1]. In terms of Sinclair and Coulthard [2] a speech act is a unit of discourse which is characterized according to its function in the discourse; according to Synytsia it is “a minimum unit of speech activity expressed by one person and comprehended by another person” [3, p.17]. However, it should be noted that in the classroom discourse teacher's speech acts tend to be especially communicatively grounded as compared to other social situations. In the educational process, as a rule, the teacher carefully analyses the possible impact of speech acts on the learner. Thus, it is important to form in students, prospective EL teachers, overall awareness of speech acts which occur in classroom verbal interaction.

We proposed MA students, prospective EL teachers, to carry out a mini-research within the joint teacher-student project work “Questioning Speech Acts: Teaching Challenges”.

Integration was realized, first, at the content level through actualizing interdisciplinary connections between the course and students' teaching practice within the theme “Classroom Discourse: From Theory to Practice”. The students were familiarized with classroom discourse as a whole, with communicative functions its components perform, with EL teacher's speech acts, and QSAs in particular. They were instructed that each teacher's speech act has particular communicative purpose which refers to the teacher's intention and effect it produces on the student. At the technological level integration was achieved through a complex of analytical research skills as well as skills of effective use of QSAs in classroom discourse.

The use of project work was intended to change the priority from readymade knowledge to students' cognitive activity on the basis of careful classroom discourse analysis, to build their awareness of learning via cognition, to stimulate meaningful practice through understanding QSAs which occur in classroom discourse.

Thus, it was hypothesized that suggested integrated project would result in MA students' considerable increase of the proficiency in questioning as an important element of classroom discourse.

Methods. This study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of South- Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky in 2019-2020 academic year. It was a fragment of a complex research aimed at increasing MA students' awareness of questioning techniques. 45 students were involved in the research. The data were collected with the help of the following methods: observations, analysis of the students' learning activity results, interviewing, questionnaires, mathematical processing of obtained data.

Results

The project work “Questioning Speech Acts: Teaching Challenges” was aimed at building students' awareness of QSAs as a valid part of EL classroom discourse. To reach this goal students were to be able to answer the following questions: What is the proportion of QSAs as compared with other speech acts in the EL classroom discourse? Which QSAs are the most widely used by native EFL teachers in the classroom discourse with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage? What are QSAs used by teacher-student in the EL classroom discourse? What QSAs do students- practice teachers primarily use in the classroom? What QSAs are popular with practice teachers with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage? What knowledge and practical skills were developed while working at the project?

The project work comprised 3 stages, each including analysis, discussion, result (product). The work mode suggested project groups of three (the 1^st and the 2^nd stages) with teacher control in Google Forms, individual work (the 3^rd stage).

The objectives of the 1^st stage were to raise students' awareness of QSAs as a unit of classroom discourse; to develop their skills to recognize QSAs of different types, to analyze their possible impact on the addressee (Learner), to define the appropriateness of their use in view of the proficiency level and lesson stage.

At the 1^st stage at the lecture MA students were introduced to the taxonomy of QSAs. Carter underlines that QSAs “require a verbal response from the addressee” [4, p. 715] and points at diversity of their forms “all of which have different pragmatic functions” [4, p. 715]. Therefore, the development of prospective EL teachers' skills of effective use of QSAs in the EL classroom is to correlate with the intentions that should be realized with the help of these QSAs in the educational process. Thus, basing on the works by Sinclair & Coulthard [5], Long & Sato [6] and Tsui [7], the following framework of QSAs was suggested as guidance for students' research activity: linguistic questioning teaching classroom

- checking QSAs (used to elicit quantity and quality of student's knowledge verifying it against fixed answers known to the teacher; have only one correct answer);

- concept-checking QSAs (a subtype of checking QSAs which is used to elicit student's understanding of vocabulary item or grammatical structure on the basis of its component concepts one by one; have only one correct answer (short, simple and low- level));

- informing QSAs (used to elicit unknown information from the student, his/her opinion, experience, attitude, evaluation, etc.; focus is on content rather than on the language; have no fixed answers);

- confirming QSAs (used to require the student to confirm or disconfirm teacher's assumption presented in a question form or to elicit confirmation that previous utterance was heard/understood correctly);

- agreeing QSAs (used to offer the student to agree with teacher's previous statement and to ascertain common ground);

- committing QSAs (used to require further interaction/verbal exchange from both the teacher and the student; suggest an obligatory verbal response);

- repeating QSAs (used to backshift the discourse, require to repeat the preceding student's utterance to clarify it or some of its elements in case of failure of communication - high level of noise, the teacher has not heard student's reply properly; may be used as a tactical move for the teacher to draw attention of other students to the words of the replier);

- clarifying QSAs (used to require the student to explain the content confusion of a preceding utterance or recode the information previously given);

- prompting QSAs (used to provide additional information to help students to give the correct answer);

- nominating QSAs (used to determine the next speaker).

We suppose that, on the one hand, this classification gives emphasis on QSAs as an important element of EL classroom discourse and is simple for students' understanding; on the other hand, it brings to light the teacher's intended purposes that are to be realized with the help of these QSAs in the classroom discourse.

Having been introduced to this taxonomy, students were asked to name QSAs which may be used in EFL classroom more often, to ground the reasons of using these certain QSAs, to suggest the QSAs which may be used in view of the lesson stage and learners' proficiency level. To corroborate or refute their suggestions MA students were to participate in the research mini-project “Questioning Speech Acts: Teaching Challenges”. They were carefully explained the research objectives, project stages, main requirements, assessment requirements, timing.

To raise their cognitive awareness of QSAs as a unit of classroom discourse students were given a list of authentic You Tube resources to investigate how QSAs are used by native EL school teachers. For this purpose, they were asked:

- to protocol QSAs according to the following scheme: 1) context; 2) QSA type (according to above-mentioned categories); 3) goal; 4) student's response; 5) lesson stage;

- to define the number of QSAs vs other speech acts in the EL classroom discourse;

- to define the frequency of each type of QSA used by EL school teachers;

- to establish which QSAs may be used in view of the lesson stage;

- to establish which QSAs may be used in view of the proficiency level.

It is noteworthy that analysis of QSAs according to the suggested scheme brings awareness to their functioning. Students not only learn some definitions but become aware of their linguodidactic potential. Thus, the emphasis is on learning via cognition, on developing students' cognitive and analytical skills.

The tasks suggested to the groups were differentiated: some groups analyzed QSAs used at pre-intermediate level, the others - at intermediate level.

At the seminar that followed students first presented their results in the form of multimedia presentation. After this we discussed within a joint teacher-student group the results obtained and formulated a guideline for the selection of priority questions.

The objectives of the 2^nd stage invited students to extend their awareness of QSAs; to master their skills of versatile analysis of QSAs and their functioning in the classroom discourse.

At this stage students were to observe Bachelor students' lessons in order to analyze the QSAs used. Their tasks were partially similar to the ones at the 1^st stage:

- to protocol QSAs according to the scheme;

- to define the dominance of QSAs used by Bachelor student at the lessons;

- to compare types of QSAs used by Bachelor students with the ones performed by EL school teachers;

- to single out typical errors concerning QSAs implementation made by a student teacher.

On the basis of this analysis the project groups were to produce a recommendation for effective questioning for the Bachelor student whose lessons they observed. Their results were presented in the form of comments to video fragments to the lessons analyzed. Thus, MA students participating in the project had an opportunity to build their awareness of QSAs and their liguodidactic potential, to develop own cognitive and analytical skills, to try themselves as tutors.

The objectives of the 3^rd stage were to develop students' abilities to construct own repertoire of QSAs, to use a variety of QSAs in the EL classroom effectively, to use QSAs to achieve educational goals at the lesson, to implement the knowledge obtained from the course in the EL classroom discourse.

Thus, MA students were asked to analyze video records of their own three demo lessons given during teaching practice at school they had in the 1^st term (these records were made as a part of conducting research aimed at increasing MA students' awareness of questioning techniques). They were to do the following tasks:

- to protocol QSAs of the demo lessons according to the scheme;

- to define the QSAs used (their types, frequency of use);

- to answer the questions: How often do I use QSAs in a class? What are the proportions of QSAs vs. other speech acts I use in a class? What types of QSAs do I use? What types of QSAs I use work best? Are the questions I use clearly worded? Do I use QSAs effectively? Do I use QSAs appropriately in view of the lesson stage? Do I use QSAs appropriately in view of the proficiency level? Is it more to do with the QSAs I ask? Can I analyze the possible impact of QSAs on the student? Can I integrate QSAs in the lesson? Do I use QSAs to achieve educational goals at the lesson? What would I change about QSAs at the lesson if I used it again? How can I improve my own use of QSAs in class?

On the basis of the analytical data obtained at previous stages and analysis of demo lessons MA students were to construct their own repertoire of QSAs. They presented it in the form of a lesson plan with a list of possible QSAs following the plan at each stage (class organization, presentation, practice (exploitation), production, homework, evaluation). Having prepared it individually they discussed it within a joint teacher-student group and made necessary improvements. This list of QSAs was to be used during their teaching practice at university. Thus, the focus was on raising students' cognitive awareness, self-assessment and learning via experience.

As a final product outcome students presented a report which included project description, students' own findings they generalized answering five research questions and conclusions.

Grading at stages 1-3 was as follows: attendance, participation and meeting deadlines (15%); task achievement (20%); final product (total 65%): contents (30%), display (15%), material acquisition (20%). For their interim products students could get 0-24 points at every stage, final project report was assessed at 0-28 points.

To assess each student contribution into project group task completion, we controlled their involvement in group work in Google Forms. Final project report presentation as well as interim products submission included teachers' interview to assess the level of students' material acquisition and was a part of total product assessment.

As a result of MA students work the planned outcomes and the project goal - to build own awareness of QSAs as a valid part of EL classroom discourse - were reached.

It is noteworthy that in our work we made emphasis on learning that involves an active knowledge construction on the part of the student - on learning via cognition. Thus, analysis of a series of EL teachers' discourse samples in terms of speech act realization promoted students' understanding of a question as a speech act, as a request for information, which correlates with a certain set of language tools, the choice of which in a particular situation depends on a number of extra- linguistic factors. In other words, they constructed two types of knowledge “know that" (factual) and “know how to” (procedural).

Trying to find answers to the questions suggested students made their own conclusions confirmed by their own findings. For example, students found out that in the EL classroom discourse samples analyzed QSAs may compile 50-80% of speech acts used. However, BA teacherstudents use about 30-34% of QSAs and MA - 40-46%.

On the basis of the analysis of EL teachers' classroom discourse MA students educed major and the most widespread QSAs to construct own repertoire of QSAs. Moreover, comparative results of QSAs performed by EL teachers and teacherstudents (both MA and BA) showed that proficiency level influences greatly what QSAs teachers use and how they form questions. At the pre-intermediate level 64% of all teacher's QSAs were checking and concept-checking QSAs (48% and 16% respectively), 16% - informing QSAs, 6% - confirming QSAs, 2% - agreeing QSAs, 3% - committing QSAs, 5% - clarifying QSAs, 3% - prompting and 2% - both repeating and nominating QSAs. At the same time 83% of students' QSAs were checking and concept-checking QSAs (68% and 11% respectively), 10% - informing QSAs, 2% - clarifying QSAs, 2%

- prompting QSAs, 1% - repeating and 2%

- nominating QSAs. Agreeing and committing QSAs were not used in students' classroom discourse. Students' findings concerning intermediate level showed that teachers use informing QSAs

- 37%, while checking and concept checking QSAs are less frequent (34% and 10%). The differences of percentage in other QSAs types are not salient: confirming - 7%, agreeing - 3%, committing - 3%, clarifying - 4%, prompting - 1%, repeating - 0.5%, nominating - 0.5%. However, the difference between QSAs used by students at this level in comparison to pre-intermediate proved to be insignificant: checking and concept-checking QSAs - 76% (65% and 11% respectively), informing - 16%, clarifying - 3%, prompting - 1%, repeating

- 1.5%, nominating - 0.5%, agreeing and committing - 1% each. These results MA students considered while constructing own repertoire of QSAs.

Thus, working according to the scheme suggested students were building their awareness of QSAs as a valid part of EL classroom discourse through understanding the following: What is it? What are the types? How does it function? How is it used? It provided extensive use of QSAs during their teaching practice.

To answer the question What knowledge and practical skills were developed while working over the project? students-participants were suggested selfassessment questionnaires (table 1).

Table 1 Level of students' knowledge and skills: self-assessment results