Teaching Questioning Speech Acts within Cognitive-Communicative Paradigm: Interdisciplinary Integration

Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of developing professional speech skills in advanced university students – prospective English teachers. The authors argue a vivid potential of the integrated research project aimed at raising in students awareness of effective teacher speech acts in the English language classroom. The  “Questioning Speech Acts: Teaching Challenges” project was realized within the course “Theory and practice of speech communication” and students’ teaching practice. Questioning speech acts are prioritized in view of their role in the classroom discourse. The purpose of this article is to present the results of the experience teaching questioning speech acts by combining linguistic instruction and practice in professional context through linking knowledge and professional skills acquisition with research work. The study presented is a fragment of the complex investigation aimed at increasing master degree (MA) students’ awareness of questioning techniques as an important element of classroom discourse. The data were collected with the help of the following methods: observations, analysis of the students’ learning activity results, interviews, questionnaires, mathematical processing of obtained data. MA students were to carry out a mini-research within the joint teacher-student project work which comprised 3 stages. Working at the project students were to clarify the following questions: the proportion of questioning speach acts (QSAs) as compared with other speech acts in the EL classroom discourse; QSAs used by native EFL teachers in the classroom discourse with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage; QSAs primarily used by students-practice teachers in the classroom; popular QSAs with practice teachers with regard to a) the ELL proficiency level, b) lesson stage. Students were also to assess knowledge and practical skills developed while their working at the project. The point of interest of this research mini-project is its integrated and practically-oriented character provided by cognitive-communicative approach with students learning via cognition and learning via experience in developing QSAs awareness. The experiment results testify the efficacy of the experimental study for MA students’ considerable increase of the proficiency in questioning as an important element of classroom discourse. Work at the project helped students to transform the acquired knowledge to new ways of verbal behaviour, to model successful communication in the EL classroom using questioning techniques, to modify their cognitive teaching styles. Findings of this research yield positive outcomes for developing in university students – prospective English teachers – awareness regarding how language is best taught in ELT classroom.