Functions Of Third-turn Repeats In EFL Classroom

The present study is motivated by the following factors:although past research has supported the pervasive presence of teachers’repeats in feedback (third turn in classroom interaction) and the important role it plays in learners’second/foreign language development, most of them are based on pre-established categories and simplistic matching between third-turn repeats and their pedagogical functions; contingent functional analysis of teachers’repeats in moment-by-moment ongoing talk has received little attention.The stated objective of the paper is to uncover and identify pedagogical functions of third-turn repeats in emergent conditions in the classroom. Specifically, two questions are raised:a) What pedagogical functions are identified in teachers’ third-turn repeats following students’second turn answers? b) Why do teachers’ questions in different stages of a lesson produce different functions to the repeat in the third turn?To answer the two questions, the database was set comprising transcripts of over 250 minutes’interaction recorded of 10 lessons in the final round of the Fourth SFLEP Cup National College English Teaching Contests. Using conversation analysis as a methodical tool, together with detailed transcription, teachers’repetitions of students’responses were identified through repeated viewings of the collected data, and it was found to be both frequent and consequential for the interaction.Findings reveal third-turn repeat functions vary contingently in different stages during a lesson as the pedagogical focus or teaching context changes. To be specific, teachers’third-turn repeats confirm a response in form-and-accuracy contexts and request an elaboration in meaning-and-fluency contexts. To note, within the same pedagogical focus, forms of third-turn repeats may differ from one to another.It is also observed that teachers’questions in different stages of a lesson bring significant meanings to the repeat in the third turn. The questions in first turn teacher raises in form-and-accuracy contexts are usually display questions appearing at any stage of a lesson to which the responses are fixed. Therefore teacher’s repeats in third turn is to conform students’responses being right or not in terms of either content or linguistic forms. While those in meaning-and-fluency contexts normally occurring at warming-up stage or post-reading stage are referential questions to which responses are open and call for further elaboration or account. So teachers’third-turn repeats might help promote meaningful exchanges thus develop students’communicative competence.The paper concludes that repeats in the third turn, used appropriately, may serve as a useful resource for teachers who want to promote fluency exercises as the pedagogical focus requires, providing significant opportunities for learning. Besides, using conversation analysis methodology to analyze student-teacher interactions promote a deeper understanding of what are really happening in ESL classroom by evaluating the data in context. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers find ways of encouraging such interaction patterns and invokes further researches to explore how teacher talk can best support learning through third -turn in classroom interaction.