Interplay of Teacher Talk and Learners’ Motivation in Learning English: A Psycholinguistic Study

Abstract

Many cases of learners failing to obtain learning materials from their teachers are due to a lack of contact or engagement between the teacher and the learners. This indicates that if a teacher communicates knowledge to students in the appropriate way, all subjects, including citizenship, will be easily understood. Indirectly, the teacher talk is based on Flanders, it can improve the student’s morale or motivation to learn the given material. A learner’s motivation to learn can come from goals or encouragement to achieve desired results. This research aimed to study the interplay of teacher talk and learners’ motivation at Watang Pulu’s 6 high schools in Sidrap, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. This paper presented some questions which are as follows: (1) what is the analysis of teacher talk in English learning? (2) What is the learners’ motivation of English at senior secondary education? (3) What is the interplay of teacher talk and learners’ motivation in learning English? This study applied a quantitative and qualitative mixed-method design. Data were collected through video, observation, and questionnaire surveys of three classes in 6 high schools of Watang Pulu in Sidrap. The results showed a significant interplay between teacher talk and learners’ motivation in learning English, and all the seven types of teacher talk were found. Amongst them, asking the question is the most frequently used interactive method by teachers. From the learners’ observation, about 70.53 % of learners could be categorized in the high interpretation of motivation.