1. Metalinguistic Awareness and
Indirect Feedback at the AGA!
Boobiti How would you
babbiti!
respond in this
situation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30JzS0
pk
2. What is
metalinguistic
awareness?
Being aware of:
-Your choice of words
-Type of feedback you give
-Language interference!
-Non-verbal behaviour
-Turn-taking behaviour
3. How do you “ground”
irrelevancy?
What type of
feedback do you tend
to give?
5. Indirect Correction
What appears at a literal level
to be a comprehension check or
request for clarification may
actually be intended to mean
that the utterance was
incorrect!
6. Examples
A: I cannot assist class (meaning “I
cannot attend class.”)
B:You can’t what? (meaning “You’ve
got the wrong word, try again).
7. Intonation
Rising intonation questions by teachers who
repeat part or all of a student’s utterance
(“echo” questions) often mean that the
utterance was wrong.
In contrast, repetition by educators with falling
intonation usually affirms correctness. We
usually stress some element in the repeated
form with either meaning.
8. Examples
A: Like that one time I goed to town with my sister…
B: You goed to town?
A: This sculpture is so big!
B: This sculpture is so big!
9. Paraphrase
Paraphrase of a student utterance by a
teacher may be intended merely to provide
an alternative way to say the same thing
without overtly suggesting that an error
has been made, but what might appear to
be a paraphrase is often a recast, which
substitutes a correct element for one that
was incorrect.
11. Another potential problem: students
sometimes don’t realize that indirect feedback
is corrective in intent.
It does not help that the English phrases OK and all
right (when followed by pauses) are often used as
discourse markers to preface corrections and not to
convey that the prior utterance is actually “OK” or “all
right” in form or content.
Even many experienced teachers are not
conscious of this potential source of confusion
for their students!
12. Goals: constantly
balance between
accepting creative
responses and “staying
on track”
In AGA lingo, follow the
Lines of Inquiry, while
maintaining a
constructivist approach!
