A teacher's discourse in EFL classes for very young learners: investigating mood choices and register

Abstract

This study reports on an ethnographic investigation about the interaction between a teacher and her very young learners in the foreign language (FL) classroom. I focus specifically on this FL teacher#s discourse as a facilitator of interactions through the analysis of her discursive practice. In order to carry out this study, data were collected in a private kindergarten school, by means of video recordings of classes in which both teacher and learners are engaged in interaction, and field notes from the teacher and from an observer. Data were analyzed through the lights of Halliday#s Systemic Functional Linguistics Mood choices and Bernstein#s pedagogic discourse regulative and instructional registers. Besides analyzing the way the children addressed the FL teacher and her use of the mother tongue, I also tried to evince the Mood structures and modality choices involved in this study, more specifically the choices made by the teacher in order to promote interactions. Moreover, the realization of the frequent use of the regulative register in terms of the teacher#s directions, suggesting acceptable behaviours was also investigated. The study is intended to contribute to make teachers of VYL aware of the role teachers# discourse to promote interactions and facilitate pedagogic practices.