Reviewing the Influences of Teacher Discourse Techniques on Students’ Learning

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the influence of teacher discourse techniques on student learning. Four speaking skills will be mainly reviewed: intonation, repetition, and wait time. The research is informed by the fact that speaking consumes a large portion of student-teacher interactions. Thus, the quality of such interactions, especially in questioning, can be improved using the appropriate intonation, repetition, and wait time. The study was completed using a qualitative research design. The data presented were obtained from secondary materials. The study used multiple approaches to address the research problem. The methods used in the current paper were referred from previous studies that had investigated intonation, repetition, and wait time as speaking skills in classroom interactions. The paper also collected data and findings from various studies to analyze the research problem. The review suggests that long wait time is better positioned to improve student learning. This is especially true for learning concepts at a high cognitive level, which requires critical thinking. Additionally, using the conducive and unconducive questions with falling and rising tones also has a high potential for improving student learning. The grammatical, benign neglect, and interpersonal approaches were found to have their inherent limitations. The review also supports the idea that repetition can advance student learning. The findings indicate that repetitions can be used to draw attention, as well as create learning habits, and many other objectives relevant to student learning. The findings of the study are consistent with the ideas and evidence presented in the literature review. The findings confirm that with the right speaking skills, students learning can be highly improved. Perhaps the major limitation of the research is that it used secondary data.