Should fl teachers stop young learners’ initiations?

Abstract

Abstract: Although most researchers and practitioners agree on the limitations teacherfronted classes put on the learners’ contribution to classroom interaction, we coincide with those who believe that, in spite of this more rigid form of interaction, students are able to take the initiative. Given the relevance such initiatives may have, especially in FL classes, we still consider it necessary to examine them in detail. Based on the standard model of discourse analysis (Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975; Tsui, 1994) we focused on how learners and teachers co-build the communicative discourse generated in class. This empirical study made on data obtained from 12 classes of English as a foreign language in Spanish Primary Schools aims to show how the teacher-fronted class is not an obstacle for students to make initiative turns. It provides a taxonomy of acts according to the illocutionary force that prompt them and a typology of ‘incises’ derived from them.