Metalinguistic Awareness and Indirect Feedback at the AGA!

Boobitibabbiti!

How would you respond in this situation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30JzS0LHpk

What is metalinguisticawareness?

Being aware of: -Your choice of words-Type of feedback you give-Language interference!-Non-verbal behaviour-Turn-taking behaviour

How do you “ground” irrelevancy?

What type of feedback do you tend to give?

Examples of Feedback

Positive evidence: what learners hear in natural, everyday speech

Negative evidence: correction

Indirect Correction

What appears at a literal level to be a comprehension check or

request for clarification may actually be intended to mean

that the utterance was incorrect!

A: I cannot assist class (meaning “I cannot attend class.”)

B:You can’t what? (meaning “You’ve got the wrong word, try again).

Examples

Intonation

Rising intonation questions by teachers who repeat part or all of a student’s utterance (“echo” questions) often mean that the utterance was wrong.

In contrast, repetition by educators with falling intonation usually affirms correctness. We usually stress some element in the repeated form with either meaning.

Examples

A: Like that one time I goed to town with my sister…

B: You goed to town?

A: This sculpture is so big!

B: This sculpture is so big!

Paraphrase

Paraphrase of a student utterance by a teacher may be intended merely to provide an alternative way to say the same thing without overtly suggesting that an error has been made, but what might appear to be a paraphrase is often a recast, which substitutes a correct element for one that was incorrect.

Examples

A: The art is so many colours!

B: Yes, the art has many colours.

Another potential problem: students sometimes don’t realize that indirect feedback is corrective in intent.

It does not help that the English phrases OK and all right (when followed by pauses) are often used as discourse markers to preface corrections and not to convey that the prior utterance is actually “OK” or “all right” in form or content.

Even many experienced teachers are not conscious of this potential source of confusion for their students!

Goals: constantly balance between accepting creative

responses and “staying on track”

In AGA lingo, follow the Lines of Inquiry, while

maintaining a constructivist approach!

Source

• Introducing Second Language Acquisition

by Muriel Saville-Troike

• Thanks for your time everybody!