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Conversational analysis of the impact of high school English teacher meaning negotiation strategies on students' English learning

Du Chenglong Luo Xiaojie

Abstract: In this study, the use of teacher meaning negotiation strategies and their impact on students' English learning in the interaction process of teacher-student interaction in 15 high school English reading classes were observed and analyzed by using conversation analysis method. The study found that: (1) High school English teachers more often used three meaning negotiation strategies such as requesting clarification, confirmation verification and repeating other people's words in the interaction between teachers and students in reading classes; less likely to use three meaning negotiation strategies such as expansion, comprehension verification and repeated self-discourse; (2) The use of different meaning negotiation strategies by high school English teachers has a significantly different effect on the communication effect of teacher-student interaction. This paper recommends that high school English teachers enhance their awareness of meaning negotiation, enrich their knowledge of meaning negotiation strategies, clarify the purpose of meaning negotiation, and flexibly use meaning negotiation strategies.

Keywords: meaning negotiation; meaning negotiation strategy; conversation analysis

I. Introduction

Meaning negotiation, especially discursive adjustments made by native speakers or interlocutors with strong language skills, can promote language acquisition by learners (Long, 1996). In the English reading classroom, effective negotiation and interaction can not only ensure that students can effectively input and obtain the content of the reading text and the language learned, but also help teachers to obtain feedback on the students' comprehension of the reading text in a timely manner through the students' instant oral output (Fan Shudan, Luo Xiaojie, 2018). However, at present, the research on meaning negotiation in China is mainly concentrated in university English classrooms and there are fewer Middle School English classes; the research angle is mainly concentrated in the interactive discourse of teachers and students in classrooms, and there are fewer studies on the use of teachers' meaning negotiation strategies and their impact on students' English learning. Classroom observation found that many high school English teachers lacked awareness of meaning negotiation and used a single meaning negotiation strategy, resulting in poor teacher-student interaction in the classroom. So, how do good high school English teachers use the meaning negotiation strategy in the reading classroom? How does the use of negotiation strategies in different senses affect students' English learning? How to optimize the use of teachers' classroom meaning negotiation strategies to promote students' English learning? The study of the above problems is the key to improving the efficiency of English reading classroom teaching, and it is also an important focus of this research.

Second, the meaning of consultation and meaning of the negotiation strategy

Meaning negotiation refers to the fact that when communication is blocked, the two sides of the exchange make linguistic adjustments based on each other's feedback, and finally adjust the input to understandable input, and then carry out effective output (Long, 1996). Back in the early 1980s, Long (1981, 1983) defined the communication skills of mutual negotiation to achieve smooth communication as a strategy for negotiating meaning and divided it into clarification requests, confirmation checks, Comprehension Checks, Self-repetition, and repetition. There are six types of repetition and expansion. A request for clarification is a form of expression that prompts the speaker to clarify his or her own words, such as the speaker answering "A little line in the leave." Confirmation verification refers to a form of expression issued by the listener to determine whether he or she understands the speaker correctly, such as the speaker answering "Where does the glasses go?" and the listener initiating "The glasses?" Understanding verification refers to a way in which the listener attempts to find out whether the speaker correctly understands his own words, such as "I mean...", "Do you understand?" Repeating self-discourse refers to a way in which the listener partially or completely repeats his or her previous words, such as the listener repeating "What does that mean?" Repeating another person's words refers to a way in which the listener partially or completely repeats the speaker's previous words, such as the speaker answering "One boy and one girl.", and the listener repeating "Yes, one boy and one girl." Extension refers to a way in which the listener extends the speaker's previous words, such as the speaker answering "An apple?" and the listener extending "An apple and a banana?".

Third, research design

(1) Research objects and research contents

In this study, 15 high school English reading lessons were selected from the 9th and 10th National High School English Classroom Teaching Observation Quality Lessons, and the use of teacher meaning negotiation strategies in the process of teacher-student consultation interaction and its impact on students' English learning were explored. The teaching teachers come from different provinces in the country and are all excellent teachers. The specific research questions are as follows:

1. How is the teacher's meaning negotiation strategy used in high school English reading class?

2. What is the impact of the teacher's meaning negotiation strategy in high school English reading class on students' English learning?

(2) Research methods and research processes

In this study, the conversational analysis method was used to analyze the meaning negotiation fragments initiated by teachers in fifteen high school English reading classes, and to explore the use of teacher meaning negotiation strategies in the process of teacher-student consultation interaction and its impact on students' English learning. The specific steps are as follows:

Step 1: Classify and encode fifteen high school reading lessons, L1-L15, and the teacher's code corresponds to T1-T15.

Step 2: Watch the classroom teaching video and record the discourse, classify and statistically analyze the collected meaning negotiation interactive fragments according to the meaning negotiation strategy of Long (1981). Encode the meaning negotiation policy as follows: Request clarification policy "CLA", Confirm Audit Policy "CON", Understand Audit Policy "COM", Repeat Others Discourse Policy "OT", Repeat Self-Utterance Policy "SE", and Extend Policy "EX".

Step 3: Extract typical fragments from the collected meaning negotiation fragments for descriptive analysis.

4. Research results and discussion

(1) Analysis of the use of high school English teachers' meaning negotiation strategy

In order to ensure the reliability of the study, the two researchers of this study analyzed the data in the same group based on the classification framework of the meaning negotiation strategy of Long, repeatedly deliberated on the controversial data, discussed and determined, and finally found that the teacher used the meaning negotiation strategy in 461 places, and the specific use of the specific use is shown in Table 4.1.1 and Figure 4.1.1.

Table 4.1.1 and Figure 4.1.1 show that in high school English reading classes, the proportion of teachers using meaning negotiation strategies from high to low is confirmation verification (42%), request for clarification (28%), repetition of other people's words (14%), extension (8%), repetition of self-discourse (6%), and comprehension verification (2%). Among them, the number of confirmation verification strategies was the highest, with an average of 12.7 times per lesson; the number of requests for clarification of the strategy was 8.7 times per class; the average number of repetitions of other people's discourse strategies was 4.2 times per lesson; and the average number of times of expanding, repeating self-discourse, and understanding verification strategies was 2.5 times, 1.9 times, and 0.6 times, respectively. Teachers use the meaning negotiation strategy 30.7 times per reading lesson on average. Most teachers use the meaning negotiation strategy close to or greater than the average, and a small number of teachers (T1, T6, T7) use the classroom meaning negotiation strategy much less than the average. In addition, the number of times T2, T3, T4, and T10 teachers repeated the use of other people's discourse strategies was much greater than the average number of times the strategy was used; the number of times T3 and T10 teachers requested clarification was much greater than the average number of times the strategy was used; and the number of times the T4 teacher extension strategy was used was much greater than the average number of times the strategy was used. In summary, there are differences in the use of teachers' meaning negotiation strategies in high school English reading classes, and there are significant differences in the use of meaning negotiation strategies for different teachers.

(2) Analysis of the impact of negotiation strategies in different senses on students' English learning

In order to further explore the impact of different meaning negotiation strategies on students' English learning, this study selects typical meaning negotiation fragments from 15 reading lessons for case analysis. Specific teaching fragments and analyses are as follows:

Case Study 1: Request clarification on the use of negotiation strategies

T: OK, now, do you think silence means the same to different people? What’s your opinion?

S: I don’t think so. Sometimes silence means anger to some people.

T:

S: Uh? Why?

T: OK, you, you mean that silence means differently to different people, right?

S: Yes.

S: Sometimes when my mother was angry with me, she may keep silent.

T: Yes. OK. Thank you.

This teaching clip is from What it means to be silent (04′05"-04′37") taught by T1 teachers. In this session segment, the teacher first asks the student "Do you think silence means the same to different people?", and the student responds "Sometimes silence means anger to some people.". After the student answered, the teacher asked the student to further clarify his or her point of view "So you have given me some evidence. At this time, the student did not understand the teacher's question and responded with "Uh? Why? ”。 The teacher explained the question "OK, you, you mean that silence means differently to different people, right?"" Can you prove it?”。 After the student understands the teacher's intentions, he clarifies his previous response with a concrete example: "Sometimes when my mother was angry with me, she may keep silent.". In this case, the teacher used the request clarification strategy to enrich the students' classroom language expression and promote the students' classroom language output.

Case Study 2: Confirm the use of verification negotiation strategies

T: Otherwise without a business permit it will be unsafe or dangerous or risky to take a taxi. Do you think so? Which makes you a...

S: Disadvantage.

S: Yeah

This teaching clip is from Getting Around in Beijing (05′24"-05′56") taught by T7 teachers. In this session segment, the teacher asks the student what they think of "Taxi without a business permit." The student responded, indicating that it was a disadvantage "Disadvantage". After the student has answered, the teacher confirms the student's point of view "Disadvantage or we can also say a problem, right?". Teachers use discourse paraphrasing to verify that they understand what students are saying. In this case, the teacher's use of the confirmation verification strategy is conducive to clarifying the content expressed by both teachers and students, and ensuring the smooth progress of teacher-student interaction.

Case Study 3: Understand the use of verification negotiation strategies

S: Um. Well, some are... um, some are for special people or events.

T: And we call such kind of festivals...

S: He...

T: No. Please follow me. Memorial.

Ss: Memorial.

T: Memorial.

T: So, what’s the meaning? 纪念性的。 Got it?

T: OK. Thank you.

This teaching clip is from The Fleets and Celebrations (08′05"-08′32") taught by T9 teachers. The conversation is preceded by a classroom interaction about the Festival. After the students responded "Some are for special people or events," the teacher led the students to summarize the category of "Festivals" with "Memorial festivals!" Ask the student "You know memorial?" to determine if the student understands the meaning of "Memorial". After the student answered "Er...", the teacher understood that the student did not understand the meaning of "Memorial", so he asked the student to read the word and tell the student the meaning "No. Please follow me." Memorial.” “So, what’s the meaning? Monumental. Got it? ”。 Thereafter, students expressed an understanding of what "Memorial" meant, and teachers continued classroom activities. In this case, the teacher used the understanding verification strategy to judge whether the student understood the teacher's words in a timely manner, which was conducive to improving the quality of the students' classroom learning.

Case Study 4: The Use of The Negotiation Strategy of Repeating Other People's Discourse

T: Why does the poet use a red rose here? How about you, the boy? Use the microphone.

S: I think a red rose is a symbol of the love.

T: Yes. Thank you. You deserve a red rose. Here is a red rose for you.

This teaching clip is from A Red, Red Rose (05′00"-05′38") taught by T11 teachers. In the above conversational clip, the teacher first asks the student "Why does the poet use a red rose here?", and the student responds with "A red rose is a symbol of the love". Teachers then responded with "It's a symbol of love."," Thank you. You deserve a red rose.”。 In this case, the teacher used the strategy of repeating the words of others, repeating the students' views and praising the students in a timely manner, so as to enhance the students' confidence and sense of participation in the classroom. The use of the strategy of repeating other people's discourse can affirm students' views, give students confidence, and enhance students' self-efficacy in English learning.

Case Study 5: The Use of Repetitive Self-Discourse Negotiation Strategies

T: But his horn. OK. What do you think the horn stand for?

S: Um, their experience.

T: Their experience. With whom?

S: The experience in the second-rate band.

T: Yeah, right. So, who left the horn?

S: Um, her husband.

T: OK. Sit down, please.

This teaching clip is from The Richer, The Poorer (17′22"-17′45") taught by T12 teachers. In this conversational segment, the teacher first asks the student "What do you think the horn stand for?", the student responds with "Their experience.", and the teacher repeats the student's words "Their experience." Then he continued to ask the students, "With whom?" Their experience? Their? Experience?", where the teacher continues to ask questions about the details, and very doubtfully repeats the previous words "Their experience?" Their? Experience?", want to further have students respond to relevant content. Teachers repeat "Their?", individually. Experience?", which allows students to pay more attention to the words repeated by the teacher, and helps students answer the details of "Their experience" with points "The experience in the second-rate band." Um, her husband.", promotes students to better understand the reading text. In this case, the teacher used the strategy of repeating self-discourse to reduce the difficulty of the problem, help the students think deeply about the problem, promote the language output of the students, and ensure the smooth progress of the classroom activities.

Case Study 6: Expand the use of negotiation strategies

T: Let’s look at those pictures. What are these people doing?

S: Take photos.

T: Take photos! Right! Photos of themselves! Right. And do you guys like taking selfies?

S: No.

T: No, woo, I like taking selfies very much.

This teaching clip is from in Light of a Monkey Selfie (02′51"-03′07") taught by T14 teachers. In this conversational segment, the teacher first asks the student "What are these people doing?", and the student responds with "Take photos.". Teachers affirmed the student's response and expanded on the student's answer, leading to the concept of "And we call photos of themselves selfies.". Subsequently, teachers and students discuss "And do you guys like taking selfies?" to bring students closer together and enhance their sense of engagement in the classroom. In this case, the teacher applied the outreach strategy in "Take photos." Based on the establishment of cognitive scaffolds, extended to "Taking selfies" and introduced the concept of "Selfie", it is conducive to improving students' thinking level and promoting students to better participate in classroom activities.

V. Research Findings and Enlightenment

(1) Research findings and conclusions

Based on data analysis, the study found the following:

First, good high school English teachers use meaning negotiation strategies in their reading classes, but there are differences in the use of the six meaning negotiation strategies. Among them, the three meaning negotiation strategies of confirming verification, requesting clarification, and repeating the words of others are used more in the interaction between teachers and students, and the three meaning negotiation strategies of expanding, repeating self-discourse, and understanding verification are used less. Second, there are differences in the use of meaning negotiation strategies between different teachers. Although the meaning negotiation strategy is reflected in the teacher's reading classroom, some teachers use some meaning negotiation strategies far more than other teachers, resulting in a large difference in the communication effect of teacher-student interaction.

Finally, different types of meaning negotiation strategies have different effects on students' English learning. Request clarification is conducive to improving students' views and promoting the construction of knowledge meaning; confirmation verification is conducive to confirming students' views and deepening text understanding; understanding verification is conducive to timely confirming whether students understand what the teacher is saying, giving students who understand the wrong point of view the opportunity to re-express their views, and improving the quality of students' language output; repeating other people's words is conducive to giving students confidence, improving students' self-efficacy in English learning and sense of classroom participation; repeating self-discourse is conducive to reducing the difficulty of problems and emphasizing important content Expansion can establish cognitive scaffolds for students and improve their thinking level.

In summary, this study concludes that the use of meaning negotiation strategies for high school English teachers is unevenly distributed. In the interaction between teachers and students in the reading class, the meaning negotiation strategies such as confirmation verification, request for clarification, and repetition of other people's words were used more frequently, and the meaning negotiation strategies such as expansion, repetition of self-discourse, and understanding verification were used less frequently; the use of meaning negotiation strategies by different teachers was different; and the impact of different meaning negotiation strategies on students' English learning was different.

(2) Research recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, this study proposes the following recommendations for high school English teachers:

1. Enhance the awareness of meaning negotiation and enrich the knowledge of meaning negotiation strategy

First of all, teachers should make it clear that the meaning negotiation strategy has an important impact on students' English learning, take the initiative to enhance the awareness of meaning negotiation, and apply the meaning negotiation strategy to the interaction process between teachers and students in English reading classes. Through the meaning consultation and interaction between teachers and students, it helps students understand the content of the text, enhances students' sense of classroom participation and self-efficacy in English learning, and promotes students' language output. Secondly, teachers should strive to enrich the knowledge of meaning negotiation strategies, better improve the ability to use meaning negotiation strategies, and apply meaning negotiation strategies to English teaching more effectively.

2. Clarify the purpose of meaning negotiation and flexibly use meaning negotiation strategy

First of all, teachers should clarify the purpose of the consultation and pay attention to the interaction effect of teacher-student consultation. When conducting consultation and interaction, teachers should flexibly use the meaning consultation strategy according to the content of the consultation interaction and the teaching objectives; teachers should start from the actual situation in the classroom and the actual situation of the students, choose a reasonable meaning negotiation strategy, appropriately increase the comprehensibility input, ensure the comprehensibility output of students, and improve the quality of classroom consultation interaction.

VI. Conclusion

In summary, the rational use of meaning negotiation strategies by high school English teachers in reading classes can effectively promote mutual understanding and accurate expression between teachers and students, and improve the teaching effect of reading classes. However, problems such as uneven distribution of the types of use of teachers' meaning negotiation strategies, and poor awareness and use of some teachers' meaning negotiation strategies still exist to varying degrees and affect the learning effect of students' reading classes. This study suggests that high school English teachers enhance their awareness of meaning negotiation and enrich their knowledge of meaning negotiation strategies, clarify the purpose of meaning consultation, and flexibly apply meaning negotiation strategies to English classrooms, so as to increase students' comprehensibility input and output, improve the quality of classroom consultation interaction, and improve the teaching effect of reading classes.

Note: This article is the research result of the first special project of the "13th Five-Year Plan" of the China Academy of English Reading Education, "Research on the Interaction and Effectiveness of Teachers and Students in Secondary School English Reading Classes" (CERA1351105).

bibliography

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［2］ Long, M. H. Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input［J］. Applied Linguistics, 1983, 4(2):126-141.

［3］ Long, M. H. The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition［A］. In Ritchie, W. C. & Bhatia, T. K. (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition［C］. New York: Academic Press, 1996: 413-468.

Fan Shudan,Luo Xiaojie. Analysis on the Influence of Consultation Interaction in Reading Classroom of Secondary School English Teachers on Students' Instant Spoken Language Output[J]. Research on Foreign Language Teaching in Basic Education, 2018(8).

Conversational Analysis of the Influence of Teachers’ Negotiation of Meaning Strategies on Students’ English Learning in Senior High Schools

From Chenglong Luo Xiaojie

Abstract: This study uses the conversational analysis method to observe and analyze the use of teachers’ negotiation of meaning strategies in fifteen high school English reading classes and its impact on students’ English learning. The study found that high school English teachers adopt clarification requests, confirmation checks, other-repetition negotiation of meaning strategies frequently in the process of teacher-student interaction in reading lessons, but rarely use self-repetition, comprehension checks and expansion negotiation of meaning strategies; different negotiation of meaning strategies have significant differences in the effect of teacher-student interaction. This paper suggests that high school English teachers raise the awareness of negotiation of meaning, enrich their knowledge of meaningful negotiation strategies. Also, they should use different negotiation of meaning strategies flexibly according to the purpose of the negotiation in various contexts.

Key words: negotiation of meaning; negotiation of meaning strategy; conversational analysis

(This article was first published in Research on Foreign Language Teaching in Basic Education, No. 2, 2020)