Teacher Talk in Vocational High School Context “Does it Matter?”

Abstract

The research was conducted as a pilot observation study focusing on three aspects of teacher talk in a
secondary level L2 of a vocational high school class. The relevance of the investigation lays in the fact
that teaching ESP in Indonesia is gaining more and more important. Teacher talk has widely been
investigated in EFL classrooms but little is known about the characteristics of teacher and student talk in
the ESP context.  Firstly, the investigation aims to shed light on the ratio of teacher talk to student talk,
and secondly, it aims to gain an insight into the role of the mother-tongue in the teaching process. The
findings indicate that the amount of teacher and student talk in the ESP classroom is similar to empirical
data obtained in L2 EFL settings. The use of the mother-tongue was perceived to be exaggerated and in
some instances unjustified. It is believed that the results of the study will enable ESP teachers to plan
their classroom talk more consciously and obtain a more critical stance when analysing their own talk.