The effect of classroom discourse on developing EFL learners' discourse competence

Abstract EN

This article investigates the impact of classroom discourse (teacher talk, teacher questions and interactional processes) on developing EFL learners' discourse competence.

Three EFL Middle School teachers participated in this study.

They were selected according to the non-probability convenience sampling method as they were willing and available during the study.

According to their administrative files, they have approximatively the same age and the same experience.

Classroom observation was chosen as a data collection tool to enable the researcher to describe activities as they happen in the classroom, to watch behavioral patterns of people in certain situations and to obtain authentic and objective information about the discourse used in the classroom.

The findings showed that classroom discourse has a negative influence on learners' discourse competence due to the following factors: dominance of teacher talk, use of display questions more than referential questions, and over-reliance on the IRF interactional patterns.