ENGAGING UNMOTIVATED EFL LEARNERS IN CLASSROOM TALK

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a teacher’s efforts in engaging her unmotivated EFL learners in classroom talk. The paper identifies the teacher’s elicitation techniques during the third turn of triadic exchanges for extending turn-taking. It also identifies the types of learner initiatives that created learning opportunities. The teacher and author of this paper introduced eight Saudi EFL learners (aged 18) to a short mystery story, before requiring them to take turns in classroom talk. 40 minutes of classroom interaction were recorded and analysed qualitatively. Informed by the principles of Conversation Analysis (CA) methodology, the paper shows that the teacher’s role moved beyond giving negative or positive feedback. Her role involved extending learners’ responses by inviting disagreement, suggesting alternatives, paraphrasing and shaping learners’ responses, linking learners’ contributions and increasing wait-time. These efforts engaged learners in different types of turn taking, including presenting new ideas, building on classmates’ ideas, disagreeing with others and extending one’s turn. It was found that learners not only engaged in turn taking during interaction but also learned how to use the new language. These findings add to the small body of available literature on elicitation techniques that involve learners in extended turns when creating space for learning. It is hoped that the findings discussed in this paper will inform EFL teaching practices. More investigation is needed to shed light on how to engage unmotivated EFL learners in classroom interaction using appropriate teaching methods.              

Keywords: unmotivated learners, EFL, elicitation techniques, turn taking, learner initiatives, learning opportunities