Teaching English

A Description of Classroom English Practiced by English Teachers

on Peer Teaching Sessions

English teachers are demanded to use appropriate and acceptable classroom English when they are involved in English language teaching and learning (ELTL). Such a demand is reasonable in nature since they are considered as English language model providers in classroom activities. Added to this, use of good classroom English by teachers is valuable input driving students to deal with second language intake. Inappropriate and unacceptable use of classroom English by teachers is at risk because students to some extent tend to construct their memory relying on what their English teachers convey. In an extreme way, this may poison students’ language memory leading to fossilization if not well handled.

With regard to the above issue, this paper attempts to reveal use of classroom English practised by English teachers of secondary schools when they are involved in peer teaching practice. It aims at analyzing classroom English in reference to the appropriate and acceptable parameters as offered in the grammar of English. To achieve the objective, this study invited 20 English teachers who were selected to join in-service training held by State University of Yogyakarta as part of a process of professional teacher certification. The participants were those teachers who failed in portfolio evaluation with less than 850 scores. Observation and recording techniques were employed to collect data. To back up data collection, audio-visual recording was conducted. The obtained data were classified, coded, and analyzed with the employment of content analysis. Triangulation was carried out to validate the data in order to minimize the bias results.

The results reveal that English teachers tend to employ inappropriate and unacceptable forms of classroom English in three steps of teaching, namely pre-teaching, whilst-teaching, and post-teaching. Of the three steps of teaching, English teachers tend to use inappropriate and unacceptable classroom English when they are involved in whilst-teaching session. Teachers tend to produce inappropriate and unacceptable English expressions when they give a turn to students, for example, *And the next, *Okay for the next, *Okay for the last, *okay maybe Joko, and the like. English teachers often use in here, *I’ll discuss about when they do presentation. They also produce many English expressions which violate the grammar of English, for example, *Now, please read one by one, *You can ask from Eka, *What sentences expressing happiness, and others. In summary, English teachers should have English language awareness when they are involved in teaching and learning process. They should be concerned about use of classroom English as their English used in a classroom interaction is believed to be a model for students.

Key words:

(1) Classroom English (2) Inappropriate and Unacceptable Language Use

A. Background

English teachers of secondary schools in Indonesia are expected to have good English commands when they are involved in English language teaching and learning process as use of English commands in classroom can be a model for students as the input of learning a second language. In other words, the excellent use of English commands by secondary English teachers in classroom can drive students to learn English better and facilitate students to deal with materials concerned. Good English commands can be one of the efforts of secondary teachers to minimize possible misunderstanding faced by students in carrying out the tasks or activities promoted by their teachers. Use of English in classroom should be promoted as the employment of first language in all explanation and instructions in English lesson is likely to only resent the intrusion of English into the English class and make a fuss.

The above statements are based on the assumption that teachers have two main roles in a communicative methodology, namely (1) to facilitate the communicative process between all learners in the classroom and between learners and various tasks, and (2) to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching groups (Breen and Candlin, 2003). This implies that secondary teachers have to accurately and appropriately employ English commands when they are involved in the process of English language teaching and learning. In other words, secondary English teachers have to avoid incorrect use of English commands in any step of teaching and learning process: pre-teaching, whilst-teaching, and post-teaching. The choice of words of English commands in any step of teaching should be promoted to minimize misconception on the part students.

As a matter of a fact, it is hard work for English teachers of secondary schools to accurately and appropriately use of English in classroom activities. English teachers often employ English expressions which do not meet the context as performed in micro-teaching practice of training for teacher certification. For example, some English teachers use expression ‘Thank you for your coming’. In this case, they mean to appreciate students’ presence. But, the meaning of the expression’ Thank you for your coming’ is used and known by a certain group. Others use inappropriate English expressions such as *Are you clear?, *Do you already finish?, *You must can answer the questions, etc. This fact drives the writer to conduct research on use of English commands by English teachers of secondary schools. This research targets the analysis of classroom English used by English teachers of secondary schools, when they are involved in peer-teaching practice of training for teacher certification.

B. Literature Review

As mentioned earlier, this study is concerned with analyzing errors conducted by secondary English teachers when they are involved in classroom activities. In reference to this issue, it is important to discuss two main issues, namely the nature of errors and classroom English. Each is presented below.

1. The nature of errors

To minimize any possible confusion, the discussion of the notion of errors is important to do. According to Ellis (2003), errors are defined as a deviation from norms of the target language due to the lack of knowledge of learners. In this case, learners are not able to do with self-correction. According to some experts, errors are different from mistakes which refer to a deviation from norms of the target language due to competing plans, memory limitations, and lack of automaticity. Mistakes can be self-corrected as learners know the rule of how to make them correct. However, it is difficult to trace whether the deviations made by second language learners belong to errors or mistakes. It requires a serious effort to justify the deviation by having in-depth interviews with second language learners. For this reason, this study does not distinguish between errors and mistakes.

With regard to errors, understanding a type of errors is of great use for analyzing the errors. Corder (1974) presents a framework for describing errors. He distinguishes three types of error in terms of systematicity. They are (1) pre-systematic errors, (2) systematic errors, and (3) post-systematic errors. The first type occurs when learners are not aware of the existence of a particular rule in the target language. The second type happens when learners have established a rule but it is the wrong one. The last type appears when learners know the correct target language rule but employs it inconsistently. To identify such types of errors, the researcher should conduct an interview with the learner. This means that the researcher has access to the learners and they have to provide explanations for their second language production. To conduct such an identification of the types of errors, the researcher requires an intensive effort as it seems to be problematic in nature. Although the error itself can be easily identified, it is hard to identify what error consists of. For example, in the construction of *My name Joko Purnomo, there is no difficulty in reconstructing the second language version. Added to this, it is very difficult to explain the utterance *I am worried in my mind as it is not clear to determine the best reconstruction whether it is ‘I am feeling worried’ or ‘I have a problem on my mind’.

Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982) identify four categories of errors. They are (1) omissions, (2) additions, (3) mis-formations, and (4) mis-orderings. The first category refers to the absence of a language item that must exist in well-formed utterances. Additions are defined as the presence of a certain language item which must not appear in well-formed utterances or sentences. In this case, second language learners tend to add a language item which violates the rule of well-formed utterances or sentences. The third category refers to the employment of the wrong form of a language item when second language learners are involved in language production. The last category is the inappropriate arrangement of a language item in utterances or sentences.

In terms of the source of errors, Taylor (1986) identifies four sources. They can be psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, epistemic, or may exist in the discourse structure. The psycholinguistic source deals with the nature of the target language knowledge system and problems that learners have in employing it in production. The sociolinguistic source concerns matters in relation to the learners’ ability to adjust their language in accordance with the social context. The epistemic source is concerned with lack of world knowledge of the learners. The last source deals with learners’ difficulties in organizing information into a coherent discourse.

Different from the four sources of errors, Richards (1971) documents three causes of competence errors, namely (1) interference errors as a result of using the first language rule to the target language one, (2) intra-lingual errors ‘which reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply’, and (3) developmental errors, that is establishing hypotheses about the target language on the basis of limited experience. However, it is very difficult to classify whether some language deviations made by second language learners belong to interference errors or intra-lingual errors, and to identify the intra-lingual errors. For this reason, this study only targets describing the errors made by secondary English teachers according to their surface category of errors without tracing the sources of errors.

2. Classroom English

When English language teachers are involved in language teaching and learning, use of classroom English is of great importance for students as they can take it as a model of English production conducted by the teachers. In addition, the excellence use of classroom English may provide positive impacts on the success of the teaching and learning activities. However, not all second language teachers take into account on use of classroom English. This is likely due to insufficient repertoire of classroom English phrases that second language teachers have (Hughes, 1990).

As a matter of a fact, second language teachers spend considerable time dealing with the basis of methodological habits for presentation, practice, and testing of learning items. In other words, they are involved in giving instructions, forming groups, setting time limits, asking questions, confirming answers, maintaining disciplines, giving learning tasks, attracting students’ attentions, evaluating learning process, setting homework, and so on. Each, of course, has a certain form of classroom English that should be employed when second language teachers run the teaching and learning process. The following discussion presents some expressions of classroom English used in the three steps of teaching and learning process, namely (1) beginning of the lesson, (2) during the lesson, and (3) ending the lesson.

a. Beginning of the Lesson

1) Greetings

• Good morning.

• Hello, everyone.

• Good morning, class.

• Good afternoon, everyone.

• How are you, everyone? How is everyone?

• How are you today?

• How are things with you?

• Did you have a good weekend?

• Did everyone have a good break?

2) Starting the Class

• Is everybody here?

• It’s 11:00. Let’s begin.

• It’s time to start.

• Let’s begin class now.

• It’s time to begin.

• Let’s get started.

• It’s 11 o’clock. Let’s begin.

• Let's begin our lesson now.

• Is everybody ready to start?

• I think we can start now.

• Now let's begin today's lesson.

• It's time to start now.

• Is everyone ready?

• OK. Now, let's start our lesson.

3) Waiting to Start

• I'm waiting for you to be quiet.

• We won't start until everyone is quiet.

• Stop talking and be quiet.

• Settle down now so we can start.

• Be quiet (everyone).

• Pay attention to me.

• Listen to me.

• Look at me.

• Return to your seats.

4) Put Your Things Away

• Close your books.

• Put your books away.

• Put your things away.

5) Attendance / Roll Call

• Ok. I’m going to take attendance.

• I’m going to call your names.

• Let me call your names.

• It's time for roll call now.

• Now, I will call your names.

• Let me take attendance.

• Please say "Here." or "Present."

• Say “yes” loudly when I call your name.

• When I call your name, say “Present.” or “Here.”

• Say "Yes, sir.” “Here, sir.” or “Present.”

• Is … here?

• Where is … ?

• Who's absent today?

• Why is he absent?

• What happened to him?

• Who isn't here today?

• Who's missing?

• Why were you absent last Friday, Aulia?

• Try not to miss any more classes.

6) Lateness

• Why were you late?

• Where have you been?

• What is your reason for being late?

• The class started 10 minutes ago. What have you been doing?

• Be on time next class.

• Don’t let it happen again.

• Thank you for joining us. Class starts at 11:00.

• What time is it?

• Do you own a watch?

• Where have you been?

• We started ten minutes ago. What have you been doing?

• Did you oversleep? Did you sleep in?

• Why are you late? Don't be late again.

7) Reviewing

• Where did we stop last time?

• Where were we?

• Do you know where we are?

• Let's review the last lesson.

•Last class we studied (talked) about….

• Let me refresh your memory.

• Let's talk about the last lesson (yesterday's lesson).

• Let's review Chapter 6.

• Do you remember what we learned last lesson? Who can tell me?

8) Previewing the Lesson / Introducing a Topic

•Today we are going to be discussing….

•Has anybody ever heard of…?

•The first thing we are going to be looking at today is….

•What we are going to cover today is….

•Today, I am going to talk about….

•The important point I want to make today is….

•Last time, we talked about…, today we will go on and ….

•First of all, I would like to talk about….

•Today's topic is….

•What I want to do today is….

9) Collecting Homework

• I’m going to collect your homework now.

• Take out your homework (assignments / essays / reports).

• Hand your papers forward.

• Hand your papers in.

• Put your papers in a pile on my desk.

• Did you do your homework?

• Where is your homework?

• Why didn’t you do your homework?

• Your homework is due at the beginning of class. Where is it?

b. During the Lesson

1) Getting Started

• Open your books to page 31, please.

• Open your books to Chapter 7.

• Look at the figure (chart / graph) on page 32.

• Let’s consider the example from page 34.

• First, read over the problem.

• Consider the situation on page35 (in problem #8).

• Let’s go over the homework questions.

• Everyone, take out your homework, please.

2) Monitoring Readiness

• Is everyone ready?

• Are you with me?

• Are you ready to move on?

• Does everyone know where we are now?

3) Distractions / Interruptions

• Pay attention, please.

• Please be quiet when I’m talking. Thank you.

• Don’t interrupt other people.

• Let me (him / her) finish talking, please.

• Would you like to say something to the class?

• Your phone should be turned off during class.

• Put your phone away, please.

• The next time your phone rings during class, I will ask you to leave.

• Please don’t bother your classmates, John.

• Please let the other students concentrate on their work.

• Class, please excuse me for a moment. This is important.

4) Calling on Students

• Tina, please share your answer with the class.

• What do you think about this idea, Joko?

• Do you agree with him, Yulita?

• Which is the best answer?

• Do you have a better answer?

• Who knows the answer to this?

• Who can give us the answer?

• Are there any other possible answers?

• Anything else?

5) Verifying

•So, you’re saying that…. Is that right?

•Do you mean that…?

• Are you sure about that?

•I think you want to say…. Is that correct?

•Are you trying to say…?

• Hmm. I’m not sure where that came from.

•Let me get this straight…. OK?

6) Clarification

• What did you say?

• Could you repeat that?

• One more time, please.

• Can you rephrase that?

•Let me see if I understand you. What you’re saying is….

• Could you repeat that? I’m not sure I understand.

• What do you mean?

• I’m afraid you’ve lost me.

• Let’s back up and try that again.

7) Encouraging Discussion

• Who would like to say something?

• Can you add anything to that?

• Could you say a little more on that?

• Can you explain that?

• Can you elaborate on that?

• Do you agree with Thomas?

•What do you think about…?

• That’s one way of looking at it. Are there any others?

• I see what you’re saying. Go on.

8) Pair / Group Work

• Everyone, find a partner.

• Get into pairs, please.

• Work with the person beside you.

• I want you to work on this with a partner.

• Form groups of 3 or 4 students.

• Find two people to work with.

• We’ll do this assignment working in small groups.

• Make groups of 4.

• Work in groups of 3.

• Who is this group’s leader? Secretary?

• One student needs to keep a record for the group.

9) Giving Instructions

• Open your books to page 52.

• Come up and write it on the board.

• Could you try the next one?

• I would like you to write this down.

• Would you mind switching the lights on?

• It might be an idea to leave this till next time.

• Who would like to read?

• Which topic will your group report on?

• Do you want to answer question 3?

10) Sequencing

•First of all, today….

• Right. Now, we will go on to the next exercise.

• Have you finished?

•For the last thing today, let’s….

• Whose turn is it to read?

• Which question are you on?

• Next one, please.

• Who hasn't answered yet?

•The idea of this exercise is for you to….

• You have ten minutes to do this.

• Your time is up.

• Finish this by twenty to eleven.

• Can you all see the board?

• Have you found the place?

11) Attracting students’ attentions

• Look this way.

• Look here.

• Look at the board.

• Stop talking.

•Listen to what…is saying.

• Leave that alone now.

• Be careful!

• Pay attention!

12) Summarizing and concluding

•To summarize, ….

• In summary, ….

•What we have been talking about….

•Okay, we have discussed….

•So far (up until now), I have been trying to show you….

• To conclude, ….

•In conclusion,….

• Let's put together everything we have talked about thus far.

•The important points to remember are….

•The conclusions we can draw from this are….

• How would you summarize the theory?

•Let’s review what we’ve looked at today….

c. The End of the Lesson

1) Signalling Time to Stop

• It's almost time to stop.

• It’s time to finish now.

• Let's finish up now.

• We'll have to stop here.

• We've finished for today.

• That's all for today. You can go now.

• That’s all the time we have for today.

• We should be finishing up now.

• Let’s wrap things up now.

• Let’s call it a day.

2) Not Time to Stop

• There are still two minutes to go.

• We still have a couple of minutes left.

• The lesson doesn't finish till a quarter after.

• Your watch must be fast.

• We seem to have finished early.

• We have an extra five minutes.

• We still have more time.

• Keep working. Time's not up yet.

3) Previewing Next Class

• We'll do the rest of this chapter next time.

• We'll finish this exercise next lesson.

• We've run out of time, so we'll continue next lesson.

• We'll continue this chapter next Monday.

• We’ll continue where we left off next time.

•In the next class, we’ll look into….

4) Homework

• This is your homework for tonight.

• Do exercise 10 on page 23 for homework.

• Prepare the next chapter for Monday.

• There is no homework tonight.

• Remember your homework.

• Don't forget your homework.

• Take a worksheet as you leave.

•For homework I want you to read….

• Read Chapter 7 for homework.

•Next class we are going to discuss…, so you should read ….

• Review the chapter we discussed today.

• Summarize the chapter for next class.

• The assignment is due next class.

• The homework is due on the tenth.

• The report will be due on Tuesday.

•Don't forget to bring your…next class.

5) Leaving the Room

• Try not to make any noise as you leave.

• Be quiet as you leave. Other classes are still working.

In reference to the above classroom English, secondary English teachers should be able to employ the appropriate expressions when they communicate with their students in classroom. Such an attempt is of great importance for students to maximize their English learning achievement as English in this context plays twofold functions, namely as the goal of their teaching and the medium of instruction and classroom management.

C. Research Methods

This study is categorized into qualitative research as it does not make an attempt to test hypothesis. The participants of this study were 20 secondary English teachers (10 English teachers of junior high schools and 10 English teachers of senior high schools and vocational high schools). They were involved in in-service training held by State University of Yogyakarta as part of a process of professional teacher certification. They come from Yogyakarta province and Central Java (Banyumas, Magelang, Purworejo, Kutoarjo, Kebumen).

To collect data from the participants, the researcher employed two techniques, namely observation and recording technique. While having observation, the researcher did note-taking of any utterances of the participants which violated the grammar. To back-up the data collection, a recording technique was employed with the utilization of MP4 and video-shooting. The obtained data via recording techniques were then transcribed and analyzed in detail for instances of use of unwell-formed utterances made by participants. Triangulation was carried out to validate the data in order to minimize the bias results.

D. Findings

In reference to the data collection, secondary English teachers tend to make errors when they are involved in teaching and learning process. The errors may occur at the beginning of lesson (pre-teaching), during the lesson (whilst-teaching), and at the end of the lesson (post-teaching). Of the three teaching events, they tend to frequently make errors when they deal with whilst-teaching as it becomes the main activity of the process of teaching and learning and requires a number of teaching skills to conduct it. In short, whilst-teaching is the core of the teaching and learning process. The following describes the errors made by secondary English teachers in the three teaching events: pre-teaching, whilst-teaching, and post-teaching.

1. Errors made by secondary English teachers

a. Pre-teaching

In pre-teaching activity, some English teachers involved in peer-teaching session made errors as presented in the following data.

(1) *The pray enough.

(2) *Who absent today?

(3) *I absent you today.

(4) *Why he absent today?

(5) *Let me absent you today.

(6) *Why you late?

(7) Have you breakfast?

(8) *I has a song.

(9) *Have you ever go the supermarket?

(10) *What did you study English last night?

(11) *Have you ever hear a Cinderela story?

(12) *Okay, today we learning narrative.

(13) *I would like to discuss about a procedure.

(14) *Have you ever gone to Bali?

(15) *I haven’t get my breakfast.

b. Whilst-teaching

(1) *Now, Eka answer question number 1.

(2) *And the next, ..

(3)*Okay for the next,

(4) *Okay for the last,

(5) *Okay maybe Joko,

(6) *In here, I’ll discuss about procedure.

(7) *Now, please read one by one.

(8) *Could you tell what is your answer for number one?

(9) *Are you confusing?

(10) *You can join with that group.

(11) *You can ask from Eka.

(12) *What sentences expressing happiness.

(13) *Are you finish?

(14) *Are you already finish?

(15) *Have you finish?

(16) *Are you clear?

(17) *Who can singing the song?

(18) *Please open page 4?

(19) *Do you find difficult?

(20) *What difficult do you find?

(21) *Attentions, please!

(22) *You are enough smart.

c. Post-teaching

(1) *You must can answer all questions.

(2) *The lesson enough today.

(3) *Time enough today.

(4) *I give you a homework.

(5) *Don’t lazy to do homework.

2. The Category of Errors

In terms of the category of the errors, there are four types, namely (1) additions, (2) deletions, (3) mis-formations, and (4) mis-orderings as mentioned in the previous discussion. Each category is presented below.

a. Additions

In reference to the above errors, the participants of the study added some language items to their language use as performed below. The additions of the unnecessary language items are underlined.

(1) *Attentions, please.

(2) *I give you a homework.

(3) *You can join with that group.

(4) *I would like to discuss about a procedure.

(5) *In here, I’ll discuss about procedure.

b. Deletions

With regard to the obtained data, the participants of this study also deleted some language items as documented below. The deleted language items are presented in the bracket.

(1) *Who (is) absent today?

(2) *Why (are) you late?

(3) *Now, please read (your book) one by one.

(4) *Don’t (be) lazy to do homework.

(5) *Now, Eka answer(s) question number 1.

c. Mis-formations

The data also show that the participants of this study also made errors classified as mis-formation category as performed below. The correct forms of the language use are presented in the bracket.

(1) *I haven’t get (got) my breakfast.

(2) *What sentences expressing (express) happiness.

(3) *Who can singing (sing) the song?

(4) *I has (have) a song.

(5) *Have you ever hear (heard) a Cinderela story?

d. Mis-orderings

In reference to the obtained data, the participants also made errors in the form of mis-ordering. The following data perform such types of errors and the correct forms of the errors

(1) *Could you tell what is your answer for number one?

Could you tell what your answer for number one is?

(2) *You are enough smart.

You are smart enough.

E. Conclusions

The findings above show that errors made by secondary English teachers are categorized into four categories, namely additions deletions, mid-formations, and mis-orderings. With regard to the errors, secondary English teachers should have English language awareness when they are involved in teaching and learning process. They should be concerned about use of classroom English as use of classroom English is believed to be a model for students. In addition, use of English is clearly crucial to the success of the teaching and learning process. This implies that the specialized classroom competence is badly required by English teachers to minimize the errors potentially made when they are involved in the process of English language teaching and learning.

References

Breen and Candlin. 2003. ‘Applied Linguistics’ 26(4):568-581.

Corder, S. P. 1974. ‘ Error analysis’ in Allen and Corder (eds.) 1974.

Dulay, H.,M. Burt, and S. Krashen. 1982. Language Two. New York; Oxford University Press.

Ellis, Rod. 2003. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hughes, Glyn S. 1990. A Handbook of Classroom English. New York: Oxford University Press.

Richards, J. 1971b. ‘ A non contrastive approach to error analysis’. English Language Teaching Jounal 25:204-19.

Taylor, G. 1986. ‘ Errors and explanations’. Applied linguistics 7:144-66.