Abstract

Metalanguage is an important part of teacher talk in L2 classrooms. The present study examined the occurrence and type of metalinguistic terms in teacher feedback and their relationship with the patterns of learner uptake and the effectiveness of teacher feedback. A total of eight teachers and nine classes participated in the study. Four to six observations were made in each class, and two tailor-made individualized tests were administered to learners. The results revealed that: 1) the occurrence of metalinguistic terms varied notably with the type of feedback episodes (i.e. teacher-initiated, student-initiated and reactive); 2) the presence of metalinguistic terms was significantly related to both the frequency and successfulness of uptake, but the type of metalinguistic terms was only significantly related to the frequency of uptake, not its successfulness; and 3) metalinguistic terms in general were not significantly related to learners’ performance in either the immediate test or the delayed test, but the type of metalinguistic terms was significantly related to the results of the delayed test.

摘要

元语言是二语课堂教师谈话的重要组成部分。本研究检查了教师反馈中元语言术语的出现和类型，以及它们与学习者吸收模式和教师反馈有效性的关系。共有八位教师和九个班级参加了研究。每个班级进行四到六次观察，并对学习者进行两次量身定制的个性化测试。结果表明：1）元语言术语的出现随反馈事件的类型（即教师发起、学生发起和反应）而显着变化；2）元语言术语的存在与吸收的频率和成功率均显着相关，但元语言术语的类型仅与吸收频率显着相关，不是它的成功；3) 元语言术语在即刻或延迟测试中总体上与学习者的表现没有显着相关性，但元语言术语的类型与延迟测试的结果显着相关。