Pedagogical discourse styles of native and non-native language teachers

This study seeks to uncover the characteristics of foreign language instructors’ discourse styles implemented in the classroom when teaching students the target language. Foreign language classrooms are unique to academia because the teachers of the language, depending on whether they are native or non-native speakers of the target language, learned it in different environments and for distinct purposes. Many of the previous studies examining the effect a teacher’s ability in the target language will have on his/her instruction have focused on native and non-native speakers’ teaching styles and/or methodologies. Rather than the effect on the teacher’s style, the central question in this dissertation is how an instructor’s native or non-native ability will affect his/her pedagogical discourse when presenting the target language to students. Through the analysis of data collected from university classrooms with native and non-native instructors, three salient variances in the instructors’ teaching discourse are revealed: the effect the L1 of the students has in presenting the L2, the pronouns used to address students and refer to speakers of the target language and the students’ native language, and the positioning and quantity of code-switching implemented in the classes. Due to the non-native instructors sharing the same L1 as their students, they have an advantage of identifying the learning process of their students. Furthermore, non-native instructors build solidarity with their students by consistently using the first person plural pronoun when comparing the forms and cultures of their and the students’ L1 to the forms and cultures of the target language. Code-switching in the classroom room is unique and different from that which is heard in speech communities. Contributing to previous literature on classroom code-switching, the present study reveals two significant motivations behind the instructors’ code-switching: a pedagogical tool and topic expansion. From the results revealed in this study, the non-native speakers are more pedagogically prepared to recognize their students’ progress in the acquisition of the target language and to answer questions their students have about the target language. These results further aid in the preparation of language teachers in order to improve the overall outcome of future language students

THE FUNCTIONS OF CODE-SWITCHING IN LOWER LEVEL SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES / LAS FUNCIONES DE CONMUTACIÓN DE CÓDIGOS EN CLASES DE LENGUA ESPAÑOLA DE NIVEL INFERIOR

Code switching (CS) between Spanish and English is a prevailing and growing phenomenon. There has been a rise over the past two decades in the interest of Spanish-English CS, as it relates to the formation of the Hispanic identity and unity in the U.S. However, there has been little research comparing how CS between bilingual English/Spanish speakers in a natural environment differs or is similar to CS used by Spanish language teachers in the classroom. The researcher for the current study collected speech samples from Spanish teachers’ pedagogical language in lower level courses, which were later analyzed in order to determine if there were similarities in the reasons instructors initiate CS in their pedagogical language and the reasons previous studies have shown speakers to use CS outside the classroom. The data reveals that while the speech environment and dynamics between listener and speaker are different, Spanish language teachers and speakers outside the language classroom implement CS for similar reasons. La alternancia de códigos (AI) entre el español y el inglés es un fenómeno prevaleciente que está creciendo en los ambientes de contacto entre las dos lenguas. En las últimas dos décadas, ha habido un aumento en el interés en la AI entre el español y el inglés, al igual que en esta relación con una identidad hispana en los EEUU. Poca investigación se ha hecho, sin embargo, que compara cómo difiere o se asemeja la AI entre hablantes bilingües del español e inglés a la AI que implementan los instructores de español en sus aulas. La autora de este estudio recopiló muestras de habla del lenguaje pedagógico de clases de niveles bajos y las analiza para determinar si las razones por las que los instructores inician la AI en su lenguaje pedagógico son similares al uso de la AI fuera del aula. Los datos muestran que mientras los ambientes de habla y la dinámica entre oyente y hablante son diferentes, los instructores de español y los hablantes fuera del aula utilizan AI por razones similares. Article visualizations