Second Language Teacher Contributions to Student Classroom Participation: A Narrative Study of Indonesian Learners
by Nugrahenny T. Zacharias
Satya Wacana Christian University (Central Java, Indonesia)
Keywords: classroom participation, Asian student silent behavior, passivity, teacher talk, reticence
Abstract
One major factor determining student classroom participation is the classroom teachers because they are the ones who control the turn-taking in the classroom. Despite the significant role of classroom teachers, to date, there is a lack of studies focusing on the role of classroom teachers in specific EFL contexts such as Indonesia. The purpose of the present study is to explore how teacher talk contributes to student classroom participation patterns. Data was collected through 85 student narratives written as part of a Cross Cultural Understanding (CCU) course assessment in an English teacher preparation program in a private university in Indonesia. From the student narratives, the factors related to teacher talk cited as contributing to student classroom participation were teachers’ lecturing styles,
teachers’ lack of modified input, unfavorable past teacher feedback and teachers’ pedagogical
stories. The study points to the critical role of teacher talk in shaping student classroom participation patterns.
Introduction
Studies into Asian student classroom participation patterns in the second language classroom have been pervasive in various contexts. According to Swain (1985), active participation provides learners with the opportunities to practice the target language. He further found that learners who are passive, make slower progress. Swain speculated that this may be because passive learners are less aware of the gap between what they want to say and what they are able to say in the target language and therefore, less likely to challenge themselves to improve. For the classroom teacher, student silence gives no indication on how the lesson is
understood and/or processed by the students. In other words, students’ active participation is
Student silence in the classroom is often viewed negatively (Liu, 2001; 2005; Tsui, 1996).
The negative view ascribed to students’ silent behavior might be drawn from a sociocultural
theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) which sees talk as an indication of cognitive development. Similarly, Swain and Lapkin (1995) see learner verbal contribution as a “move from semantic processing prevalent in comprehension, to the syntactic processing needed for
production” (p. 375). From this perspective, an absence of student talk can be interpreted as a
lack of cognitive development. Due to the significance of students’ active classroom
participation, studies into ways teacher can create conditions to facilitate student talk are necessary.
Studies on student classroom behavior have often aimed at identifying factors contributing to such silence with the aim to mitigate student silence. Earlier studies on classroom
participation cited students’ L1 culture as one major factor contributing to student silence
(Cortazzi & Jin, 1996), although this has been recently challenged (Cheng, 2000; Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Marlina, 2009). Other factors contributing to learner reticence, according to Tsui (1996), are learners’ inability to understand teacher talk, teachers short wait-time and learners’ fear of embarrassing themselves by making mistakes. Moreover,
aspects such as students’ target language competence, previous speaking experience in class,
confidence level, personality traits and/or learning cultures are all possible reasons
contributing to learners’ classroom participation in the language classroom (Liu & Jackson, 2009; Tani, 2005). Studies conducted on Asian students studying in English-speaking countries also identified native speaker peers (Jones et al, 1993) as a significant factor leading to student silence.
Originally, it was intended for the present study to focus on factors affecting student classroom participation. However, when I analyzed the data, teacher-related variables were found to be recurring themes in majority of the student narratives. Thus, the present study aims to focus specifically on how teacher talk affects student classroom participation.
Swain’s (1985) study shows that language learning is far more effective when learners are
“pushed” to use the target language in productive tasks and more often than not, the teacher is
the “director” (Lee & Ng, 2009), controlling “both the content and [classroom] procedure,
discussion topic, and who might participate” (Lee & Ng, 2009, p. 303). Through teacher talk,
classroom teachers project the kinds of discourse roles students should take to be a successful member of the classroom (Rex, Murnen, Hobbs, & McEachen, 2002).
In Indonesia, where teachers are viewed differently from their Western counterparts and
perhaps other EFL contexts, studying the extent to which teachers contribute to students’
participation patterns is even more important. Widiyanto (2005) notes that the Indonesian society sees teaching as a high status profession. Guru, the Indonesian word for a teacher, stands for “sing digugu lan ditiru” or “to be modeled after.” A teacher is viewed as an “ideal
model of a member of the society” (Widiyanto, 2005, p. 107). Therefore, teachers play a
significant role in modeling the kinds of participation patterns that are desirable in a classroom setting.
Unfortunately, to date, there are not many studies exploring the role of classroom teachers in student classroom participation in EFL contexts. Among these limited studies, many were conducted in Chinese contexts (Lee & Ng, 2009; Tsui, 1996; Xie, 2010) with very few in other EFL learning situations such as Indonesia. This scarcity calls for more explorations on the role of classroom teachers in student classroom participation patterns in various EFL
situations. Additionally, the absence of such studies might result in “harmful homogenization”
(Kumaravadivelu, 2003) by which the role of Indonesian teachers is assumed to be somewhat similar to that of Chinese teachers.
My analysis on how teacher talk contributes to student classroom participation is built on two
assumptions. The first is based on Fairclough’s (1995) belief that teacher talk powerfully
projects a message about “who students think they are, who they think they can be, and who
ultimately they can become” (cited in Rex et al., 2002, p. 2). Second, because teacher talk is a
changeable variable compared to unchangeable variables such as teachers’ sex and ethnicity.
To account for the role of teacher talk in student classroom participation, the present article
took students’ perspectives as a point of departure. The present study is situated in a teacher-preparation program in the Faculty of Language and Literature in a private university in Indonesia. The data for the present article is drawn from a larger project exploring factors contributing to student classroom participation patterns. The data was gathered from 85 Indonesian pre-service learners’ narratives following a prompt documentation of their feelings and opinions when they were silent and/or silenced in the classroom. The research question guiding this study is: what aspects of teacher talk contributing to student active
participation were reflected in the students’ narratives? The findings from the present paper
will be of interest to Indonesian teachers in particular, but may also be of use to teachers from other backgrounds espousing similar teaching practices.
Method
Data collection and procedures of data collection
Data for the present article was taken from student narratives relating their experiences when they were silent or being silenced in the classroom. The narratives were part of a course assessment in Cross cultural Understanding (CCU) courses. There were four CCU courses altogether and I was one of the class instructors. This course was selected for the present study because it requires a high level of student participation. In each class, there were 35 students. Participation in the study was voluntary. Among the 140 students taking the CCU course, 108 students (77%) decided to participate in the study.
At the beginning of a session discussing classroom participation, students were instructed to reflect on their classroom participation by writing a narrative on a classroom situation in which they were silent or being silenced by factors beyond their control. To provide organizational scaffolding, the following prompt was given as guidance:
Write an event or situation in the classroom in which you (NOT other people) were silent or being silenced. Write the journal by answering the following guiding questions:
Think of a critical incident/event where you were silent. Describe and reflect on the event by answering the following questions:
What made you silent? Mention the factors that made you silent at that time. How did you feel when you were silent? Why did you feel this way?
All narratives were written in English. Students were given approximately two weeks to write the narratives and submitted them by email. The narratives are not intended to be taken as a representative sample with the aim of systematically generalizing the results to a larger population.
Initially the present study was intended to explore the phenomena of the silent behavior of students. However, one factor affecting student classroom participation recurring in the narratives was the classroom teacher; this result is well-supported in the literature (see, among others, Cayanus, 2010; Fassinger, 1995; Lee & Ng, 2009; Walsh, 2002, 2006). Therefore, I decided to focus exclusively on student narratives that stated the classroom teachers as the factor affecting their classroom participation. Among the 108 narratives, 85 (78.7%) narratives were used for the purpose of the present study.
When studying student silent behavior, instruments of data collection such as interviews (Marlina, 2009), questionnaires (Green, 2008; Karp & Yoels, 1976), observations (Xie, 2010) and mixed methods (Morgenstern, 1992; Mustapha & Rahman, 2011) have generally been utilized. To understand this issue, I believe it is crucial to start from student experiences (Duranti & Goodwin, 1992) . Therefore, in the present study, I chose student narratives as the instrument of data collection.
Data analysis
The narrative data in the study were analyzed using content analysis of factors contributing to
Findings
Students’ narratives illustrated various dimensions of teacher talk that contributed to student
classroom silent behavior. The elements of teacher talk cited are (a) teacher lecturing styles,
(b) teachers’ lack of modified input, (c) unfavorable teacher feedback, and (d) teachers’ pedagogical stories.
Teacher-lecturing styles
The most cited factor mediating student silent behavior is teacher-lecturing styles. According to Mason (1994), lectures provide “the setting where the subject matter of a course is
explained, discussed or otherwise taken up in a meeting between lecturers and students” (p.
203). Recently, with a move towards the development of active and student-centered learning, lecturing is increasingly being considered unfavorable (Cheng, 2000). This concern is also reflected in the narratives of S51 and S68:
Narrative 1
One hour just for teacher to explain the materials, and every students only have one
minute to speak. “Who is studying, actually?” I had come to speaking class, just listen to the teacher, and have only one minute to speak, and then I have to wait again. That’s it
[S51]. Narrative 2
The way a teacher teaches contributes to my silence. Like one of my teacher tended to 'lullaby' students by talking all the time and after that asked a question to the whole class.
I think it’s better if they nominate a student to contribute an answer [S68].
The narratives of S51 and S68 are clearly very much in line with the well-established findings concerning the need for meaning or knowledge to be negotiated, rather than transmitted, in the L2 classroom (see, among others, Cheng, 2000; Lee & Ng, 2009; Walsh, 2002). Through their narratives, it is obvious that these students were aware of the limiting
learning opportunities provided by excessive teacher talk time (Walsh, 2002). S51’s narrative
shows a struggle for a more egalitarian distribution of talking time between students and
In her narrative, S12 wrote that in addition to the lecturing style, classroom participation can be influenced by teacher personality:
Narrative 3
My lecturer was a kind of "killer" lecturer who explained straight from the handbook. In the class she only discussed and explained the exercises in the handbook without question-answer session. Every time I came to class I just need to sit and listen to the
teacher reading the book … In this class, of course, I keep silent all the time because I did
not understand the material, I felt afraid of the "killer" lecturer, and I thought the lecturer did not really care of students participation so I did not have any duty to participate actively during the class" [S12].
From S12’s narrative, it can be inferred that when classroom teachers adhere strictly to the
textbook, they communicate to the students that their roles in the classroom are to merely “sit
and listen to the teacher reading the book.” In S12’s case, this was made worse with the teacher’s “killer” personality which communicated a message to students that their active participation was unwelcomed (“I did not have any duty to participate actively during the
class.”). Dufficy (2005) notes that such a restricted student role conditioned by teacher lecturing styles should be avoided because it “give[s] teachers little insight into language
development and virtually no insight into thinking” (p.67).
Teachers’ lack of modified input
One way to facilitate active student involvement is teacher modified input (Tsui, 1995). Indeed, teacher modification strategies are a significant aspect of teacher classroom talk. In the narrative of S80 below, she shared her experience of being silenced when a teacher did not modify the question:
Narrative 4
In my opinion, I was an active student. I always actively speaking and giving idea in group discussion. However, my teacher can make my silent. I remember one time my teacher asked some questions. I remember the topic was about Phonology. I was silent
because … I did not know the answers to her questions. I did not even have the slightest
Tsui (1996) notes that the teacher needs to be aware that when a response to his/her question is not forthcoming, the question needs to be modified. The narrative of S80 illustrates that
teachers’ lack of techniques in modifying the question might result in S80’s reluctance to
venture for an answer, perhaps, for fear of being wrong. According to Rahman (2013), fear of being wrong is one of the significant factors causing student silence in Indonesian classrooms. When a teacher asks a question, without adequate modification, it, to a certain degree, heightens learners’ risk of contributing wrong answers. This might be the reason why S80’s, a self-proclaimed active student, made a conscious decision to be silent, a position he
unwillingly took. S80’s narrative challenged the finding of previous studies by Mustapha and
Rahman (2011) and Karp and Yoels (1976). Both of these studies found that students who perceived themselves as active were relatively consistent in their participation patterns in
terms of frequency and length of participation; a finding that is contrary to S80’s narrative.
In addition to teachers’ lack of modification strategies, many participants wrote in their
narratives that the reasons for their present classroom silence was because of the unfavorable attitudes that past classroom teachers expressed when students did not respond to their question accordingly:
Narrative 5
When I was in senior high school, my [English] teacher asked me to read a narrative text aloud [in English]. Afterwards, my teacher asked me questions. I was silent because I really did not understand the question. She repeated the question again in English without translating it to Indonesian or using gestures to make it clearer. I thought I was silent because of my teacher's lack of approach to make me understand the question. She even was angry at me for not being able to answer her question. [S89]
The narrative of S89 reminds us that for many students, being active in the classroom is not merely a matter of cognitive act but more of an affective one. According to Cortazzi and Jin (1996), Chinese students would not likely venture an uncertain reply for fear of making mistakes and being laughed at because of their learning culture which views the importance
of saving one’s public image among peers (Rahman, 2013; Tsui, 1996). S89’s narrative
Unfavorable past teacher feedback
Many studies found that student classroom participation is attributed by contextual factors (Cao, 2011; Phillips, 1994) such as teacher’s teaching and interactional styles, unfamiliarity with topics and materials, among others. However, this is not the case with many students in the present study. In fact, they wrote that the present classroom participation patterns were in fact, a result of past learning experience:
Narrative 6
When I was high school, I was an extremely silent student. I was actually afraid of being wrong and scolded by the teacher. It was my safety. I hate being scolded by the teacher so I prefer to be silent. Silence prevented me from being the object of teacher's wrath. [S27] Narrative 7
Teacher's response toward the students' answer affects me to be active in class. Some teachers responded kindly and accept students' answers but sometimes the teacher responses were confusing, unfriendly and some even mock the students' if their answers were wrong. [S42]
Narrative 8
During my childhood my parents & teachers scolded me if I did something wrong. I think it brings psychological impact to my personality. So I thought it would be better to be
silent so your mistakes won’t be noticeable. [S73]
Together these narratives point to the lasting effect of and determining role of unfavorable past teacher feedback in student classroom participation patterns. Edwards and Westgate (1994) reminds us that when students contribute an answer in the classroom, it involves a myriad of cognitive and affective risks because they need to undergo several filtering
processes which include “locate[ing] a potential juncture, make[ing] a bid, gain[ing] the floor,
quite possibly challenge[ing] the topic, and have[ing] the topic accepted as relevant” (p.145).
Teachers’ pedagogical stories
Other than teachers’ teaching techniques, another teacher-related factor contributing to student classroom participation found in some student narratives is teachers’ pedagogical stories Rex, Murnen, Hobbs, and McEachen (2002) note that teacher pedagogical stories,
appropriate social and academic knowledge and performance” (p.3) and thus, project the
kinds of discourse roles students need to take in a particular classroom. As S11 puts it: Narrative 9
I think I become silent because of my elementary school teachers always said to me that a good student always pay attention and silent when the teacher explains in front of the class. [S11]
In understanding S11’s silence fully, Wenger’s (1998) discussion on imagination is a useful
one. According to Wenger, ‘imagination’ is “a process of expanding our self by transcending
our time and space and creating new images of the world and ourselves” (p.176). Here, S11’s
elementary school teacher is central in shaping S11’s imagination of good students as those who “always pay attention and (are) silent.” The central point here is that teacher talk creates
an imagined identity of a good student and a learner’s classroom silence in the target
language might be understood within this context. The notion presupposes that when language learners speak, they are not only expressing ideas, but they are also constantly and concurrently organizing, reorganizing and aligning themselves with the identities of good learners constructed from their previous educational experience (also in Liu, 2005) and being silent is a large part of an attempt to fulfil those mental constructs.
One student, S28, encouragingly wrote how teachers’ encouragement can significantly
transform her participation pattern: Narrative 10
I am now more active. With the help of my teacher from elementary school, I can participate differently. He always told me no use of being silent all the time because you never get any progress and knowledge. Don't be afraid of asking stupid questions and [making] mistakes because those are a part of learning. Gradually by his encouragement I can be an active student and never afraid of making mistakes anymore. I think the encouragement from the teacher gave a big impact toward my participation. [S28]
From this narrative, we learn the significant role of teachers’ classroom narratives in shifting S28’s participation patterns. He advised her on the kind of discourse roles she needed to take
asking stupid questions and [making] mistakes”). This encouragement appears to have
established S28’s future participatory role in the classroom.
Discussion and conclusion
This study has attempted to identify how teacher talk contributes to student classroom participation patterns. Data was collected from 85 student narratives documenting their feelings, opinions, and perspectives when they were silent in the classroom and factors contributing to their silence. The study found that student classroom silent behaviors were a
result of a complex interface between ‘on-site pedagogy’ (E.g. teacher lecturing styles,
teachers’ lack of modified input, past teachers’ feedback and teachers’ ‘past pedagogy’ such
as in the case of S89 (Narrative 5), S27 (Narrative 6), S73 (Narrative 8 respectively).
From the student narratives, students seemed to be more willing to participate when they
sensed the teacher valued active students’ participation patterns and projected it through teacher talk and teaching techniques utilized in the classroom. However, teachers need to be aware that their expectations for student active participation might collide with student past learning experiences such as in the case of S27 (Narrative 6), S73 (Narrative 8) and S11 (Narrative 9). Therefore, at the beginning of a course, teachers should make clear what they expect from the students with regard to classroom participation (Liu, 2005). Johnson (1995) notes that when students have a clear idea of what is expected of them, they can have a better idea of the participative roles they need to take in the classroom. Teachers also need to design teaching techniques or pedagogy that allow for a transition from passive to active learners
and ensure that students’ exposures to past pedagogy do not lead to stagnant classroom
participation patterns which provide comfortable and safe zones (see the narratives of S42, S27, S73, and S89) but fail to provide learners with the opportunities to achieve their full potential as learners.
to participate in the classroom. S51, particularly, felt that teacher-dominant talk limits
students’ learning opportunities, a notion that is widely supported by many researchers
(Guttierrez, 1994; Johnson, 1995; Xie, 2010). To this end, Nystrand, Wu, Gamoran, Zeiser, and Long (2003) recommend the use of high-level evaluation when the teacher responds to student contribution. To increase the quality of teacher interactional styles, Xie (2010) encourages teachers to gather data about their own interaction styles and analyze them with regard to the participation opportunities they provide.
The most encouraging finding from the students’ narratives was that many students appear to be willing to participate in the classroom although such desire does not automatically translate into student active classroom participation. Therefore, it is important for teachers to
find ways to stimulate students’ active participation in the classroom. There needs to be more in-depth research in different contexts focusing on the kinds of pedagogical techniques that can facilitate active student engagement. Further, studies might also explore the concept of
silence from the students’ perspectives to give more insights into what classroom teachers as well as institutions can do to foster and cultivate more active students.
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