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Features of Interesting English Language Classes: The Role of Teacher Talk

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Stimulating Student Interest in Language Learning

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Abstract

Discussions of language teaching have mostly focused on language learning tasks. Teacher talk, which has often been downplayed in such task-centred discussions, plays a pivotal role in many language learning classrooms around the world and is ‘a reliable, economical, effective source of input, equally available for students in class’ (Tin, Language Teaching Research, 18(3), 397–417, 2014b, p. 414) in peripheral contexts with poor material resources. This chapter investigates the features of teacher talk which contribute to student interest in learning English. It examines the discursive practices manifested in the talk of one particular teacher whose English classes were rated by the majority of students in the study as the most interesting classes among all the English classes they studied in a four-year BA in English programme in Myanmar (Burma).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Tan Bee Tin

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  1. Tan Bee Tin
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Tin, T.B. (2016). Features of Interesting English Language Classes: The Role of Teacher Talk. In: Stimulating Student Interest in Language Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-34042-9_8

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