TEACHER TALK VIS--VIS LANGAUGE LEARNING IN AN ESL CONTEXT, WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO A PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY Maam I have been working for the past couple of weeks to reorient my focus from CALL to TEACHER TALK. After going through a number of papers on teacher talk, I have come up with the following points for my thesis. If it is lacking anything please mention it so that I amend it accordingly. So far, my rough outline includes focus on the broader components of teacher talk: communicativeness, speech modification, error correction, follow-up and code-switching. I have formulated my research questions as: 1. Is the talk communicative?Comment by SWALEHA NAQVI: What is teacher talk like in your research setting?a. Does it focus on both inside/outside classroom context?b. How much of ritualized non-communicative teacher behaviour is there? c. Teacher-student interaction:learner-initiated interaction vs. teacher initiated interaction (Referential questions)2. Speech modificationa. Does the teacher fill in the gaps or not?b. How important are phonological adjustments for non-native comprehension?c. Does it construct or obstruct learner involvement?3. Error correction4. Feedback on content/role of follow-up (IRF chain)a. Strategies teacher uses to construct meaning using learners contributions5. Wait time6. Code switching a. How much of code-switching is present in the teachers talk?b. What triggers code-switching in the teachers talk?c. Teachers + learners perceptions about role of native/target languagei. Use of English by the teacher (function). Is it systematic?ii. Is code-switching facilitating/obstructing learner response?iii. What amount of new vocabulary and grammar rules are welcome by the learners? 7. Incidental vocabulary learningComment by SWALEHA NAQVI: Does the teacher talk in the classroom have an impact on student learning?If yes, what is the nature of that impact? Better learning, student responsiveness, interactiveness, better retention?All of this you will get from your data.And dont assume in advance that teacher talk will have an impact on the learners oral skills. Your data must tell you what it has an impact on. Thats the point of researchSo broadly speaking you have two to three research questions:What is teacher talk like in your setting?Does it have an impact on student learning?If yes, what kind of impact?You could also look at how teacher talk may be used to facilitate student learning (again your data must tell you this NOT your reading)DONT FORGET TO LOOK AT RESEARCH QUESTIONS IN SIMILAR STUDIES---THOSE WILL GIVE YOU A SENSE OF DIRECTION---REFER TO NOTES/HANDOUTS ON RESEARCH QUESTIONS8. How much has the teacher talk in this specific context bolstered learners oral skills?SAMPLEStudents of MS English at Foundation University, Rawalpindi Campus. Comment by SWALEHA NAQVI: Is this comparative research? TWO CLASSROOMS TWO TEACHERS????METHODOLOGYAPPROACH? CASE STUDY, NARRATIVE INQUIRY, ETHNOGRAPHY ETC?????METHODS1. Observation (FIELDNOTES TO BUILD UP CONTEXT)2. Questionnaire (both teacher and students) 3. CONVERSATION ANALYSIS (RECORD, TRANSCRIBE AND ANALYZE TEACHER/STUDENT INTERACTION