Language choices and pedagogic functions in the foreign language classroom: A cross-linguistic functional analysis of teacher talk

Abstract

This article examines the language choices made by native-speaker teachers of Japanese, Korean, German and French in foreign language (FL) classrooms in New Zealand secondary schools. It explores these teachers' patterns of alternation between English, the majority language, and the TL, using both AS-units (Analysis of Speech units), devised by Foster et al. (2000) and a multiple-category coding system entitled 'Functional Language Alternation Analysis of Teacher Talk' (FLAATT), developed expressly to allow a cross-linguistic comparison of the relationship between teachers' language choices and particular pedagogic functions. Findings suggest that the participating teachers differed markedly..