A discourse analytical study on teachers' oral instructions in elt classrooms

Teacher talk constitutes an important component of education and instruction process. This kind of talk serves for several purposes, such as informing the students, handling the order of the classes and activities effectively. One of the main patterns of teacher talk is instructions since they explain how an action behavior, method or task is to be begun, completed or executed (Atwater & Morris, 1988). Besides, instructions which require using a clear and simple use of language are considered as important elements which favor language acquisition in ELT classes (Ellis, 1984). In this respect, this study mainly aims to analyze teachers? oral instructions which constitute the core aspect of teacher talk. The study was carried out by examining the oral instructions which performed in teacher talk by recording data from eight ELT classes at Foreign Language Center (YADİM) in Çukurova University. In order to describe and define teachers? instructions fully, the whole data were analyzed in terms of six categories regarding `the syntactic forms?, `teachers? attitudes? while providing instructions, `the general purpose? involved in giving instructions, `the recipients? to whom instructions are addressed, `the classroom acts? realized by teachers? instructions, and lastly `functions as speech acts? in the larger social frame. In this study, first instructions were analyzed regarding `syntax?, `quality?, `content? and `recipient? features based on Atwater & Morris?s (1988) study. Next, in order to reveal the types of classroom acts these instructions may convey were searched for relying on Sinclair and Coulthard?s (1975) taxonomy of classroom acts. As the last step, teachers? instructions were analyzed in order to bring out the types of speech acts they may convey relying on Searle?s speech act categories (1975).Key Words: Teacher Talk, Instruction, Syntax, Quality, Content, Recipient, Classroom Acts, Speech Acts