DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TEACHER TALKS DURING

ENGLISH CLASSES AT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

METHODIST BANDA ACEH

Chairunnisa1

Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This research aimed at analyzing a spoken discourse produced by an

English teacher at Senior High School Methodist Banda Aceh. The
discourse analysis was done to identify the production of ideational
function, interpersonal function, and textual function in the teacher talks
produced by a teacher. The research method used in this study was
discourse analysis which focuses on the spoken discourse to interpret
deeper meaning of the spoken sentences. The respondent of this study
was one English teacher at Senior High School Methodist Banda Aceh.
The data collection was carried out through classroom observation and
interview. The data were later analyzed by using three steps analysis.
Before the process of data analysis, the data were transcribed. The results
show that concerning ideational function, the teacher used mostly
material process such as writing, answering, speaking, etc. Concerning
interpersonal function, he mostly used declarative mood which is a mood
of statement. Finally, the textual theme that he mostly used was
unmarked theme, which means he frequently emphasized the subject of
the sentence mostly on his students, not on adjuncts. In conclusion, the
teacher used these functions to keep his students active during the
teaching and learning process.

Keywords: teacher talks, discourse analysis, ideational function,

interpersonal function, textual function.

INTRODUCTION

Since English is a device of overall correspondence in endeavor to

express and pass on implications, teachers are the ones who significantly

1
Corresponding Author: chairunnisa_u@yahoo.com

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Discourse Analysis of Teacher Talks during English Classes at Senior High School
Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

have the greatest commitment and obligation in showing it (Cameron,

2001). This is considered so because of the fact that English is one of the
necessary subjects in the Indonesian national educational programs; in
essence it is a foreign language in this nation. The significant point of
English education in Indonesia is to create relational abilities, both oral
and written aptitudes in all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. With a specific end goal to achieve motivations behind these
guidelines, educators at school need to complete appropriate types of
talks during the teaching and learning process. Nowadays, there are some
problems commonly found in the process of English teaching at high
schools (Brown, 2001). First, students can hardly master English even
though they have studied the language for six years at school - junior and
senior high schools. Some students have even taken extra English
courses, but they still cannot totally master English. Second, there are
students who have negative behavior toward English. Consequently,
English has just drifted away every time it is taught. In this factor,
basically students have problems with learning in general. Last, teachers
are less interesting for students because of certain factors, such as the
teaching techniques which can be boring, the teacher’s general
personality, and the teacher talk.
There are many teachers who consider that teacher talk is an
obstacle during teaching and learning process in the classroom (Maftoon
& Shakouri, 2012). Meanwhile, good usage of teacher talk can enlarge
the student’s opportunity in language learning. Mostly, teachers are not
able to create genuine and authentic communication during the teaching
and learning process as monotonous classroom conditions are regularly
applied, so that students get more stressful during the learning process
which blocks their learning opportunities (Gharbavi & Iravani, 2014).
Resnick (1983) proposes a few types of talks that are for the most part
utilized by the teacher, to be specific: (1) provoking students' learning,
(2) welcoming students to talk, (3) empowering students, and (4)
remedying students' discussion. Teachers have a tendency to make a few
inquiries and it is also vital to keep in mind the end goal to discover at
the end of the learning process. Resnick (1983) recommended that asking
students' background knowledge can assist students with constructing
ideas. Cameron (2001) brought up a few reasons for making inquiries –
i.e. to effectively connect with students in the exercise, to make students'
enthusiastic for the theme, and additionally to make students enhance
their basic reasoning ability. It appears from that a teacher made a few

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inquiries since he/she needed to know the students' background

knowledge.
Besides, teacher talks can be effectively applied if some principles
are followed. First, teacher talk can be more significant, intriguing and
successful when a teacher gives more chances to students to talk. Second,
a teacher should devise distinctive encouraging systems in making
students certain and prepared to talk are since talking is imperative
expertise which happens in unconstrained circumstances. Third, it is
proposed to catch teacher talk and students talk in talking aptitude as well
as in various abilities, for example, writing, listening and reading. It is
on account of when the teacher shows composing, the teacher talk
likewise will be diverse when s/he shows reading and listening. Fourth,
it is prescribed to discover more different structures in investigating
classroom talk (Mulyati, 2013).
The effectiveness of a teacher talk can be analyzed by looking at the
meta-functional parts of his or her speech (Bilal, 2012). It can reveal deep
meanings of what teachers say in the classroom. The investigation has
demonstrated that an examination of semantic contents does not merely
help understand the content structures, yet it is an addition to its profound
implications. Such an investigation uncovers the concealed self of the
characters drawing out their goals behind the articulations which may
show up hard to get a handle on for a second language student.
In Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday (1985) distinguishes
three meta-functions of language. The first meta-function is ideational
function, which is the 'substance capacity of language'. It is
acknowledged in transitivity and serves to speak to circumstances and
occasions on the planet and the functions, activities and procedures
included. It is in the ideational capacity that a content maker epitomizes
in language their experience of the marvels of this present reality. The
second meta-function is relational capacity, which is the 'participatory
capacity of language'. It takes into account the declaration of dispositions
and assessments and is acknowledged by mind-set and methodology. It
likewise permits the statement of a connection set up between a content
maker and a content purchaser. The third meta-function is textual
function also called the printed capacity of language. This function is an
empowering one in which ideational and relational implications are
completed. The printed work is acknowledged in data structure and
union (Halliday, 1985).
To strengthen this rationale, three previous studies on teacher talk
were examined. First, it is a study conducted by Faruji (2011). He

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

identifies a number of ways in which teachers can improve their teacher

talk to facilitate and optimize learners’ contributions as follow. First, it
is to examine more closely the link between teaching process and
language use. Second, it is to avoid filling in the gaps activities in the
discourse of the EFL classroom. Third, it is to raise teachers’ awareness
of their language use in the classroom by making audio- and video-
recordings of their lessons, and analyzing the transcripts. Fourth, more
time should be allocated by any relevant stakeholders, e.g. schools, for
teachers to provide the most beneficial ways of language use in the
classroom. Finally, teachers are suggested to understand more fully the
qualitative aspects of language use in order to come up with a set of
guidelines which constitute good practice in language use in the
classroom. It is a good practice in language use which can lead to
improving students’ motivation through a learning process.
The second study was done by Fikri, Dewi, and Suarnajaya (2014).
They found that there was mood difference between male and female
teachers when talking in class. Female teachers used more speech
functions compared to male teachers. Furthermore, there was also
difference in mood selection between male and female teachers. The
impact that they found on students learning was that when the teacher
was female, it was easier for the students to get emotional bond because
of the mood that they applied in the learning process compared to the
male teacher. The third study was carried out by Gharbavi and Iravani
(2014). The study tried to analyze the quality and quantity of teacher talk
with the purpose of raising awareness for teachers in order to carefully
select and filter the way they interacted with their students. The finding
suggested that the teacher in this study failed to put up authentic
communication with their students and the researchers found that the
talks were monotonous.
Briefly, based on the rationale narrated above, the researcher is
interested in conducting a study concerning teacher talk. The gap
provided in this current study is that there are different subjects and
objects involved. The school teacher as well as SMA Methodist Banda
Aceh involved was never studied for the case metafunction of teacher
talks before. The author formulates the following research questions as
the core of this study: What are the ideational, interpersonal, and textual
functions of teacher talks in English classes at SMA Methodist Banda
Aceh?

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Teacher Talks
Classroom-focused research was begun to explore the way toward
educating and learning as they happen in classroom setting. It is just to
research what occurs inside a classroom (Allwright & Baily, 1991). Its
point is to distinguish the issues that advance or hamper learning in a
classroom. There are several aspects which are seen important in creating
a good learning atmosphere in a classroom. Hanrahan (2005) suggests
that these aspects concern teaching style, pacing and sequencing, and
dialogue usage. The development of enthusiasm for the examination of
teacher language has been invigorated by the dismissal of the language
teaching technique as the essential determinant of fruitful learning. At
first, the fundamental suspicion in instruction had been finding the
privilege of the case. It was trusted that the instructing impact was totally
controlled by the decision of educating strategy. Concentration, for
instance, which was proposed by Reid (2002), explores similar adequacy
of strategies, for example, language interpretation, sound lingualism, and
subjective code, yet it was not ready to exhibit that one was more fruitful
than another (Ellis, 1985).
Nunan (1991) mentioned that teacher talk is of urgent significance
for the association of the classroom as well as for the procedures of
obtaining learning objectives. It is critical for the association and
administration of the classroom since it is through language that teachers
either succeed or fail in actualizing their instruction plans. As far as
acquisition, teacher talk is essential since it is most likely the significant
wellspring of fathomable target language input the student is probably
going to get. The sum and sort of teacher talk is even viewed as a
definitive factor of progress or disappointment in classroom instructing.
There are various ways that experts expose on the characteristics of
teacher talk. A few scientists, for example Long and Sato (1983), found
that teacher talk is improved in a rather formal way - linguistically,
phonologically and semantically. In the syntactic space, expression
length to kids is shorter. In the region of phonology, discourse to
youngsters is pitched higher, has more misrepresented sound, and uses a
more extensive pitch extend. It is portrayed by clearer explanations,
delays amongst articulations and a general slower rate of conveyance. In
the semantic area, vocabulary is more limited; teachers deliberately
select the words they use as indicated by the students’ capability and
level. New words and troublesome words are kept away.

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

In addition, teacher talks are also parts of the classroom that cannot
be separated. Chaudron (1988), having explored teacher talk for quite a
while and abridged some exploration results on teacher talk, proposed
that teacher talk in language classrooms tends to demonstrate the
accompanying alterations. First, the rate of discourse gives off an
impression of being slower. Besides, pauses, which might be
confirmation of the speaker arranging more, are conceivably more
continuous. Third, elocution has a tendency to be misrepresented and
improved. Fourth, the vocabulary utilization is more fundamental. Fifth,
level of subordination is slower. Sixth, greater numbers of declaratives
and articulations are utilized than questions. Finally, teachers may self-
rehash all much of the time.
Questioning is a standout amongst the most widely recognized
strategies utilized by teachers (Richards & Lockhart, 1994) and fills in
as the foremost manner by which teachers control the classroom
cooperation. As an indicative instrument, classroom questions enable a
teacher to see into the psyches of students to discover what they know or
do not know as well as how they consider a theme. Latest research on
outline hypothesis recommends that the structure of students' existing
information is a great determinant of how new data will be found out and
student confusions and earlier conviction with the learning of new
material (Donald & Eggen, 1989). Through vital scrutinizing, a teacher
can evaluate the present condition of students, consider and recognize
what students know as well as holes and misinterpretations. A second
critical capacity that questions perform is instructional. The instructional
capacity centers on the part that questioning plays in helping students
learn new material and coordinate it with the old one. Questioning gives
training and criticism basic for the improvement. Questioning is getting
students ready to the data in an exercise. It is likewise important in the
learning of incorporated collections of information. Toward this
objective, questioning can be utilized to survey beforehand learned
material to set up an information base for the new material to be
scholarly. Moreover, as a new material is being produced, questioning
can be utilized to illuminate connections inside the substance being
talked about (Donald & Eggen, 1989).
A third capacity that classroom questions perform is motivational.
Through questioning teachers can draw in students effectively in the
current exercise, testing their reasoning and presenting issues for them to
consider. From an exercise point of view, an inquiry toward the start can
be utilized to catch students' consideration and give a concentration to

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the exercise. Moreover, visit and intermittent questioning can empower

dynamic investment and give opportunities in the exercise for being
proceeded with student inclusion. At last, at the individual level,
questioning can be utilized to move meandering students again into the
exercise or to give a chance to one student to show up (Donald & Eggen,
1989).

Grammatical Metafunctions
When a person talks, there is always a hidden meaning behind the
talk, which is known as speech metafunction. Halliday and Matthiessen
(2014) suggested that language has three meta-functions: ideational,
interpersonal, and textual. The ideational implications are the
implications about how we speak to express our intention in a certain
language. Whatever utilization we put the expressions to, we are
continually looking at something or somebody accomplishing
something. Eggins (2004) classified the ideational meta-functions into
two segments: that of experiential importance and consistent importance.
Experiential significance is communicated through the arrangement of
transitivity or process write, with the decision of process ensnaring
related member parts and arrangements. Ideational function is language
concerned with building and maintaining a theory of experience. It
includes experiential function and logical function (Eggins, 2004). The
experiential function refers to the grammatical choices that enable
speakers to make meanings about the world around us and inside us.
Halliday (1985) argued that it was through this process of humans
making meaning from experience, language evolved. Thus, the human
species had to “make sense of the complex world in which it evolved: to
classify, or group into categories, the objects and events within its
awareness”. These categories are not given to us through our senses; they
have to be “construed in taking this position on the active role of
grammar in construing reality”.
The second segment of ideational meta-function is logical function.
Halliday (1985) described logical function as the system which organizes
logical semantic relationships between one clause and another in a
sentence. The systems which come under the logical function are taxis
and logico-semantic relations. When two clauses are combined, a
speaker chooses whether to give both clauses equal status, or to make
one dependent on the other (Eggins, 2004). In addition, a speaker
chooses some meaning relation in the process of joining or binding
clauses together. Halliday (1985) argued that the meanings we make in

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

such processes are most closely related to the experiential function. For
this reason, he puts the experiential and logical functions together into
the ideational function.
The interpersonal function assumes the part of setting up and
keeping up social relations, and shows the parts of the members in
correspondence (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Halliday (1985)
brought up that the relational importance can be communicated by state
of mind and social technique. Afterward, he included pronoun
framework, attitudinal modifier and highlights of words. Additionally,
Eggins (2004) found that the connection between dialect frameworks and
the decision made by a speaker in the trade empowers us to see speakers
making importance about relational: the degree of their closeness, their
level of recognition with each other and their states of mind and
judgments. The interpersonal metafunction is coded by mood in English
by seeing the pattern of the mood, whether it is declarative as a statement,
imperative for an order, interrogative for a question, or offering.
Interpersonal metafunction discusses the people’s use of language
regarding who their audiences are. Because the main concern is
interactions among humans, speech roles play significant parts in this
metafunction. The roles are giving, demanding, exchanging information,
and exchanging commodity. The four are commonly known as
statement, question, offer, and command (Eggins, 2004). Interpersonal
meaning is analyzed mainly in terms of ‘mood’ and ‘modality’. A mood
analysis brings to the fore the grammatical structures that project various
speech functions. There are four mood types in interpersonal
metafunction as adopted from Eggins (2004); they are declarative mood,
interrogative mood, imperative mood, and exclamative mood.
Finally, it is textual function which is seen as the cohesion and
coherence of the text whether it is written or spoken. Halliday (1985)
further explained that coherence and cohesion are created in a discourse
in the form of textual metafunction. Reciprocally, these two elements
cohesion and coherence create the meaning of language which is outlined
implicitly in the discourse. Briefly, it can be said that in various contexts
including in spoken contexts, a meaning is possible to be obtained by the
utilization of the textual metafunction. Textual function recognizes
meanings of language through its context. Concerning with contexts,
there are two kinds of theme, namely marked and unmarked theme
(Haliday, 1985). Marked theme is an uncommon adverb which is put at
the beginning of the sentence, while unmarked theme is a common
adverb which comes at the end of the sentence. For example: Yesterday

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Diana bought many books (Marked theme), and Diana bought many
books yesterday (Unmarked theme). Further, there have been a lot of
arguments in academic writing that the coherence of ideas, clarity and
logicality of relationships among sentences and paragraphs is presented
in terms of “thematic organization” (Eggins, 2004). This is figured out
to be a significant aspect of functional grammar to keep a message well
organized. A marked theme is a component in a sentence that unites
together with syntactic subject, while unmarked theme is a component in
a sentence that does not unite together with syntactic subject.

Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is an interesting domain to study about. VanDijk
(2006) illuminated that there are numerous approaches to examine a talk
section, contingent upon our points and hypothetical ideal models. In any
case, regardless of their significant contrasts of hypothesis and strategy,
contemporary talk and discussion experts for the most part concur that
such an examination ought to at any rate expressly take care of the
structures or systems of this discourse characterized as an open occasion
or as an occurrence of social cooperation. We should subsequently need
to look at the syntactic, elaborate, explanatory, down to business,
factious, interactional or different structures that characterize the
different measurements or levels of this discourse. We may call this the
focal assignment of talk and discussion investigation.
In analyzing discourse, there are many pinpointing factors such as
social, political, institutional or social conditions and the results of
analysis are generally understood as the 'specific circumstance' of each
factor. There are numerous ways of talk and discussion investigation that
have been done to particularly or essentially analyze language use. In
this way, some experts discuss that social structure may become the
enthusiasm for further research as long as it is applicable for not just
“talk”, but also “written discourse” (VanDijk, 2006). A related
contention is that such mental states and procedures are more private and
confidential, so that an investigation of digressive social communication
should take care of general society measurements of content and talk as
well as considering the case for the beneficiaries.
Concerning the issue of validity and reliability of discourse analysis,
there are additional references. As Gee (2005) urged, validity for
discourse analysis is based on the following four elements. First, it is
convergence. This means that convergence plays a vital role. The more
explanation it gives, the more valid and convincing it becomes.

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

Otherwise, it cannot give compatible and convincing answers to many or

all of them. Second, it is agreeable. Agreement in this case means that
the subject of the research is being involved directly. The analysis is
more valid more that it can be applied to relate to the data. This includes
being able to make sense of what has come before and after the situation
being analyzed and being able to predict the sorts of things that might
happen in related sorts of situations. Lastly, it is the issue of linguistic
details. The analysis is considered more valid if it is tightly related to the
structure of language. All human languages have evolved both
biologically and culturally. The aim is to serve various functions in
communications. For this reason, the grammar of any social language is
composed of specific forms that are made to carry out specific functions,
though any form can usually carry out more than one functions. In
addition, truth can be clarified when it is crosschecked with research
subjects involved.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research method of this study is basically qualitative in nature.

Ary, Jacobs, Razavieh, and Sorensen (2006) explained that qualitative
study finds out a phenomenon, a process or particular point of view from
the perspective of those involved. In brief, the purpose of this study is to
understand the meta-function used by an English teacher during the
teaching time. In terms of design, the researcher used discourse analysis
which analyzed a spoken discourse made by an English teacher at SMA
Methodist Banda Aceh. According to Jorgensen and Phillips (2002),
discourse analysis refers to a general idea that language is structured
based on different patterns that people use in different areas of social life.
Discourse is context which is broader than sentence. Teacher talks can
also be classified as discourse. All of the discourse analytical approaches
cover the respect to the views of language and the subject, in order to
provide a common base for the discussions. Fairclough (2005) and Gee
(2005) argued that discourse analysis is in general the analysis of text,
whether it is spoken interactions, written texts, or multimedia texts.
There are various topics of interest in discourse analysis which are the
narrow dimension of discourse—such as sounds, speech acts, syntax,
gestures, rhetoric, meanings, and other aspects of interactions. Besides,
Gee (2005) also mentions that discourse analysis involves the analysis
between text and context, text and syntactic structure, text and

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interactions, and text and power as in political discourse (Gee, 2005;

Trappes-Lomax, 2008).
The study was conducted in Senior High School Methodist Banda
Aceh. It is located in Jalan Pocut Baren, Gampong Keuramat, Kuta
Alam, Banda Aceh. There were 170 students at this school. The first
grade consisted of 56 students, the second grade consisted of 58 students,
and the third grade consisted of 56 students. The subject of this research
is an English teacher at Senior High School Methodist Banda Aceh, and
their talks during teaching. Meanwhile the object of this study
concerened with the discourse of the ideational metafunction,
interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction produced by an
English teachers during the English classes at Senior High School
Methodist Banda Aceh. The researcher obtained the data by using two
research instruments: observation sheet and interview guide. To support
the researcher’s intention to analyze the teacher talks during the teaching
and learning process in Senior High School Methodist Banda Aceh, the
researcher used observation sheet as an instrument. This instrument
provided information about the ideational, interpersonal, and textual
functions of teacher talks in the classroom interaction. The observation
sheet was adapted based on Nurpahmi (2017) who already did the
research related analysis of teacher talk in the classroom interaction
context. The other instrument is interview guide which provided the
information to support the main data gathered by means of observation.
The combination of research instrument is termed as triangulation.
The data were collected through observation by note taking and
video recording. The researcher was involved here as a non-participant
as mentioned by Creswell (1998). The non-participant researcher is the
researcher who only observes the condition and takes notes on the
phenomena that happen. Observation is applied to know the real teaching
and learning activities occurred in the class to gain an understanding the
process of teacher talks. To see completely the complexities of numerous
circumstances, coordinate cooperation in, and perception of, the marvel
of intrigue might be the best research strategy.
The researcher acted as an observer during this particular study. It
means researcher participated passively during the observation
interaction where the English teacher taught. The researcher observed
the teaching and learning process and took notes of the teacher’s talk.
Since the researcher was hard to cope with all the conversations which
occurred during the interaction, the video recorder (Samsung J5 Pro) was
used to record all the activities. She observed this for second and third

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

grade twice for each grade. Consequently, there were 4 meetings in total.
However, only the teacher talk that consisted of ideational function,
interpersonal function, and textual function became the data in study.
Then all the data findings were transcribed and analyzed to find out the
ideational function, the interpersonal function, and the textual function
as proposed by Saragih (2013). To minimize artificiality of subject
observers the researcher informed the teacher that her coming would not
impact language learning activity. The observation was held on October
3rd, 2018, October 4th, 2018, October 10th, 2018, and October 18th, 2018.
During the observation, the researcher entered the class and videotaped
the classroom teaching and learning process without involved actively in
the process. In addition, she also took notes on how the teacher managed
the class. There are three important points from this note: first, the
teacher always opened the class with lesson outline; second, he then
always made points throughout the learning process; and finally, the
teacher asked every student to take notes on the points of summary that
he gave.
Later, concerning the interview, the author conducted interview
with the English teacher. The questions were about the use of teacher
talks during the transfer of teaching material, the types of interaction
during the teaching process, etc. In this study, researcher used semi-
structured and open ended interview by taking some notes if they were
related and important to the research results. This interview was
conducted after the researcher observed the process of teaching and
learning in the classroom. An audio recorder was used as a tool to record
all the conversations between the teacher and the researcher. There were
5 questions for this interview and the interview lasted for 15 minutes.
Then, all of data from the audio recording were then transcribed and
analyzed to the benefits and drawbacks in teaching English as foreign
language in the classroom.
In this study, the data were analyzed qualitatively. In attempt to
answer the first research question, she did the analysis concerning the
types of process in ideational function. Then, to answer the second
research question, the researcher scrutinized the major mood used in the
teacher’s oral sentences. Later, to answer the textual function was
examined by identifying the theme and rheme of those sentences.
Finally, she drew conclusions based on the results obtained after the data
analysis.
There were two techniques used in analyzing the data. A thematic
analysis is one that looks over every one of the information to recognize

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the normal issues that repeat, and distinguish the principle subjects that
outline every one of the perspectives you have gathered. This is the most
widely recognized strategy for unmistakable subjective tasks. The key
stages in a topical investigation are scrutinizing and comment on
transcripts, which is the most essential stage. It is not important to give
a diagram of the data in this progression, yet mention fundamental
objective facts. This is especially valuable with the initial couple of
transcripts; at that point, it is the identification of the subjects. In this
progression, it is important to begin looking in detail at the information
to begin distinguishing subjects: the rundowns. In the edges of every
transcript or set of notes, begin to note what the interviewee is alluding
to. Attempt to make these as dynamic as could be expected under the
circumstances. This implies not simply abridging the content, but rather
attempting to think what the content is a case of (Brikci, 2007).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results of Classroom Observation

The first observation was on October 3rd, 2018; in that session the
researcher did not record any activities of the classroom interaction. She
only observed the learning process and familiarized herself with the
teacher and students. It was done in order to avoid the artificiality of the
subjects being observed. Moreover, the researcher ensured that her
coming would not affect the teaching and learning process as mentioned
in the section of data collection technique of this study. For the other
observation sessions carried out on October 4th, 2018, October 10th,
2018, and October 18th, 2018, the researcher only observed language
learning interaction in the classroom. The teacher and students were
ensured by the researcher that her coming would not affect the teaching
and learning process. The researcher recorded all the classroom activities
by using a video recording. The result of data analysis showed that the
teacher began the class by greeting and checking the attendance list as
she usually did and then she continued to review the previous learning
material in order to refresh the students’ mind about the last subject by
giving them several questions and the students who could answer the
questions got an extra point. Then, the teacher started to explain what
they would learn that day, namely about making sentences in the
conditional form for the second grade students and making hortatory
exposition text for the third grade students. It was started by explaining
and giving some examples of conditional sentences (second grade) and

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

hortatory exposition text (third grade). Here, the researcher found the
ideational functions, interpersonal functions, and textual functions of
teacher talks produced by the English teacher.
In the next activity, the teacher gave students 15 minutes to write on
a piece of paper about the examples of conditional sentences for the
second grade students, and about hortatory exposition text entitled
“Korean Influence, Instagram or Country Concern for Palu Earthquake”
for the third grade. During the writing process, the teacher helped the
students with their work, for instance, helping students to find out certain
words or vocabulary in English and how to write them in the conditional
form. Then, the teacher also informed the students how to relate the first
sentence to the next or the first paragraph to the next one. It was quite
noisy at that time, because all students spoke with their friends asking
and answering their friends’ questions.
When the time was up, the teacher asked all students to stop their
work and then asked one student to read his/her text in front of the class.
After collecting and presenting, then the teacher gave feedback to the
students’ work and concluded what they had learned in the class. He
ended the class by asking them questions related to the material that they
got that day and giving them extra points.

Results of Meta-functions in Teacher Talks

This part concerns with the results of meta-function (ideational,
interpersonal, and textual) from second grade (XI) and third grade (XII).
The analysis of interpersonal and textual are also entailed as it takes the
sentence analysis as a whole.

Table 1. Result of Material Process along with Mood and Theme

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
Everyone pays attention to
XI Material Declarative Unmarked
the whiteboard.
Students should write
XI Material Declarative Unmarked
examples.
XII Walk to the front of the class. Material Imperative Unmarked
XII Melanie, come here. Material Imperative Unmarked

In Table 1, it can be seen that the sentence contains the material

process. As shown in the table, in class XI the verb used by the teacher
was pay attention which means that the teacher wanted every student to

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be actively involved in the teaching and learning process that he was

hosting. Then, in the next column, we can see that the mood is declarative
mood. The teacher was declaring that all of his students should look at
the whiteboard at the moment. In the last column, meanwhile, he used
unmarked theme which means that the subject of his sentence was clear
and pointing directly to everyone in the classroom which was his
students.Moreover, the results of mental process along with the mood
and theme analysis is shown below.

Table 2. Result of Mental Process along with Mood and Theme

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
XI You know it. Mental Declarative Unmarked
XI Think about it. Mental Imperative Unmarked
XII I do not like the book. Mental Negative Unmarked
XII Do you like this flower? Mental Interrogative Unmarked

Table 2 shows that the sentence contains the mental process. In the
first sentence in class XI, it is clearly seen at the verb usage that the verb
used by the teacher was know which means that the teacher wanted his
students to proceed the information mentally, not physically as
happening in material process. In this condition, the teacher wanted to
emphasize the material that he was explaining. Then, in the next column,
we can see that the mood is declarative mood. This is basically the mood
frequently used by the teacher. In this sentence, he was declaring that all
of his students knew the proposition about the organization of hortatory
texts, because it was the topic on that day. In the last column, he used
unmarked theme which means that the subject of his sentence was clear
and pointing directly to whom he meant, which was his students.
In addition, the teacher talk contained verbal process along with
mood and theme as presented below.

Table 3. Result of Verbal Process along with Mood and Theme (I)

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
Last week, we discussed the
XI Verbal Declarative Marked
formula.
XI Next we talk about type III. Verbal Declarative Marked
Yesterday, I told about
XII Verbal Declarative Marked
narrative.

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Discourse Analysis of Teacher Talks during English Classes at Senior High School
Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

XII Now, I ask him to go out. Verbal Declarative Marked

Table 3 shows that the sentence produced in class XI contained

verbal process. We can see that the teacher used the verb discussed. This
means that the teacher was pointing at a time in the past (because he used
past form verb) to show his students that they were discussing about the
conditional type I in the past (last week). Thus, the implication is the fact
that he wanted all of his students to recall the information back because
it was discussed in the previous week. Then, in the next column, we can
see that the mood is also declarative mood. What appears different in this
table is the theme that is shown in the last column. This time, the teacher
used marked theme. It is a theme that is not a doer; in this sentence last
week, the unmarked theme, was placed at the temporal adjunct or better
known as adverb of time in structural grammar.
Furthermore, we can also find relational process along with the
mood and theme analysis in this teacher talk.

Table 4. Result of Relational Process along with Mood and Theme

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
Do you have any
XI Relational Interrogative Unmarked
idea?
Do you have any
XI Relational Interrogative Unmarked
example?
Do I look
XII Relational Interrogative Unmarked
handsome?
Does it taste
XII Relational Interrogative Unmarked
good?

Table 5 above shows that the sentence produced in class XI

contained the relational process. It is clearly seen at the verb usage that
the verb used by the teacher was have. He was asking his students
whether they had any ideas in their mind. At that time, he was trying to
find an example to write in the whiteboard. Then, in the next column, we
can see that the mood is interrogative mood where he was questioning
his students whether or not someone had an idea about the examples to
write in a hortatory text as it was the topic on that day. Finally, in the last
column, he used unmarked theme which means that the subject of his
sentence was clear and pointing directly to you.

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 ENGLISH EDUCATION JOURNAL (EEJ), 11(1), 34-57, January 2020

Existential process along with the mood and theme analysis could
also be found in this teacher talk as shown in the following.

Table 5. Result of Existential Process along with Mood and Theme

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
There are two examples
XI Relational Declarative Unmarked
here.
There is one student in the
XI Relational Declarative Unmarked
canteen.
There is a car in the parking
XII Relational Imperative Unmarked
lot.
There is a bowl in the
XII Relational Imperative Unmarked
kitchen.

Table 5 shows that in class XI it can be seen that the sentence

contained the existential process. It is shown that the verb used by the
teacher is to be “are” which means that the teacher wanted every student
to look at the two examples that exist on the whiteboard as he had written
them earlier. The auxiliary verbs “to be” are always taken as the state of
existence. As the teacher wrote two examples on the whiteboard, he
presented these examples using the existential process. Then, in the next
column, we can see that the mood was still declarative mood. The teacher
was declaring that all of his students should look at the whiteboard at the
moment to see those two examples. In the last column, he used unmarked
theme which means that the subject of his sentence was clear and
pointing directly to two examples on the whiteboard.
Finally, the results of behavioral process along with the mood and
theme analysis found in the teacher talk was shown and discussed.

Table 6. Result of Behavioral Process along with Mood and Theme

Ideational Interpersonal Textual

Class Sentence
process mood theme
XI She smiled at me. Behavioral Declarative Unmarked
XI Johanes is laughing at us. Behavioral Declarative Unmarked
A cat sleeps under my
XII Behavioral Declarative Unmarked
bed.
Jensen never smiles in the
XII Behavioral Negative Unmarked
classroom.

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Discourse Analysis of Teacher Talks during English Classes at Senior High School
Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

Table 6 above shows us that the first sentence produced in class XI

contained the behavioral process. The teacher used the behavioral verb
smiled. At this moment, the teacher was giving an example on the topic
he explained, namely conditional type II. He took an example that if a
girl smiled at him, he would be shy. Later, in the next column, we can
see that the declarative mood could clearly be seen to be used by the
teacher. Lastly, the theme was unmarked, that is, she.

Results of Interview
This sub-section discusses the result of interview. There were five
questions asked to the teacher during the interview. In the first question,
the teacher stated that the instructor had to give more features to the
students. If not, the students could be confused when they needed to
make notes. When they got confused, they would have problem to recall
the material. For the second question, the teacher clarified that it was
better if the teacher adjusted everything in the classroom.
Notwithstanding, in class, it is better if students had all the more original
exercises on their own. This implies that if they consider about a certain
material, there must be an exercise given for the material. If we only give
clarification and they are simply thinking it without doing it, they will
overlook everything. Later, for the third question, the teacher answered
that it was better if teachers asked more and more questions. The aim
was to involve students to the material that was discussed on that day.
The question could be about telling about the definition or giving an
example. Because at the present time the students had already known
more than the teacher did. In short, he believed that the teacher did not
just stand in front of the class and give lectures and assignments.
For the fourth question, the teacher said that he believed if he gave
a lot of assignments for his students, they would remember more
information. And if more questions are being asked to the students, they
can utilize more of their background knowledge. And finally, for the last
question asking whether he also used English outside the classroom, the
teacher answered that he used English both inside and outside the
classroom, but he mixes between English and Indonesian when he talks
to his students.

Discussion
The present study has successfully found out the meta-function in a
teacher talk occurring in two English classes of Methodist Senior High
School of Banda Aceh. The first data is related to the ideational process.

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The teacher made the abstract concepts of English subjects become more
real. This can be said so because he mainly used the material process in
his teaching. The words that he mostly used were ‘work’, ‘do’, ‘write’,
and ‘say’. Alaei and Ahangari (2016) mentioned that material processes
which is determined on the basis of the actors that are being animate
reveals the fact that whatsoever happened in the story was done by the
actors. Meanwhile, looking at the second most frequent process, namely
mental process, it implies that the teacher tried to make impression in his
students’ mind and memory when he involved the use of mental process
of ideational function. The words that he frequently used were ‘think’,
‘remember’, and ‘imagine’. Moreover, the mental process verbs were
found in the teacher talk, whose function was to show that the
participants do not only see, believe, think, understand and know the
subject, but they are also mentally aware of the classroom procedure in
the teaching and learning process.
In the case of material process verbs, there are a lot of them
appearing in the teacher talk observed in this study. The higher number
of this material processes which is determined on the aim that the main
actor is the teacher himself reveals the fact that anything happening in
the classroom was under the control of the teacher. This implies that the
actor—in this case the teacher—is the character who carries on the main
responsibility of leading the students. Considering the types of mental
processes, the reaction mental process verbs are all related to the process
of learning. This points out that the teacher is the only one who reflects
and shows any possible reactions to the learning situation on that day and
takes the responsibility of guiding his students whether to be active or
passive in the learning process (Alaei & Ahangari, 2016).
Second, regarding the interpersonal function, based on the mood
occurrences, it can be said that the teacher was so courageous to involve
his students in the process of teaching and learning. This is evidenced by
the use of interrogative mood where the teacher was definitely fond of
asking students a lot of questions before he explained. He wanted the
students to elaborate ahead of him. Then, his elaboration is also
important. It can be seen that he used the declarative mood quite often.
This means that he also considered that giving a restatement after the
students aspire what they think is as important as asking them to give
opinions on a subject matter. This leads to the learning process where
students can be actively and independently involved. As Hanrahan
(2005) argued it is very important to keep the dialogue that keeps all
students actively involved when a teacher teaches because if it is not so,

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

the explanation about the subject of that day would only be heard without
acquired by the students.
In line with the study of Fikri, Dewi and Suarnajaya (2014), they
stated that the male teacher’s speech functions seem to be varied.
Basically, when the exchange between the teacher and the students take
place, it occurs initiating and responding. As has been mentioned
previously, the male teacher utilized seven types of speech function. Four
types are in terms of initiating such as offering something, commanding,
giving statements, and asking questions. Three types are in terms of
responding such as acknowledgment, answer and contradiction. From
533 clauses, the total numbers of clauses employed by the teacher in the
classroom interaction, for instance, statement is 207 clauses, question is
119 clauses, command is 113 clauses, and offer is 14 clauses. It is also
similar with this study, that the most used mood is declarative mood or
statement mood.
There exist many factors affecting teaching quality. For many years,
teachers just focus on the learning of teaching methods and techniques.
Most of them just follow or imitate the fashionable teaching method or
technique. As a result, they only copy the superficial forms, but miss
some essential elements of teaching. Teacher talk, the most important
factor a successful class depends on, always be neglected. In the actual
teaching, few teachers are aware of the importance of teacher talk and
use it unconsciously, they know little about the forms of teacher talk and
most of them just follow other teachers. As we have discussed, different
forms of teacher talk bring different effects: positive feedback can create
a warm, encouraging classroom atmosphere that prompt learners;
referential questions can elicit students to produce more complex,
meaningful sentences than display questions, and thus lead them to attain
a much higher language proficiency. It was found that the teachers
receiving training in question types produced significantly more
referential questions than the control teachers following training
(Chaudron, 1988). Thus, if teachers know much about teacher talk and
choose its appropriate forms consciously, the dull atmosphere in the
classroom will disappear and the teaching quality will improve.
Teachers should persist in the study of teaching and learning theory
and place teacher-training in its proper place. At the same time, a good
teacher must integrate the teaching theory with practice. Teacher talk is
the medium to combine theory with classroom practice. It will contribute
a lot to the successful classroom language teaching if teachers know
about the theoretical knowledge including teacher talk (Cullen, 2002).

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Finally, concerning the textual function on the usage of unmarked

and marked theme, it is implied that the teacher tends to use clear and
concise subject when he spoke during his teaching time. The use of more
unmarked theme reveals this fact. When the unmarked theme is used, the
students can catch the information in a more precise way without any
hidden or implied message in it (Alaei & Ahangari, 2016).

CONCLUSION

There are three conclusions that can be drawn over the findings in
the previous chapter. Based on the research question one (i.e. to find out
the ideational metafunction), the teacher used a higher number of this
material processes. This process is characterized by the point that the
primary performing actor is simply the teacher who uncovers the way
that anything occurring in the classroom was under his control. This
suggests the on-screen character—for this situation, the teacher—is the
character that carries on the fundamental duty of leading the students.
Thinking about the sorts of mental procedures, the response of mental
process verbs are altogether identified with the way toward learning.
This focuses on the reflections and demonstrations that any conceivable
responses to the learning circumstance on that day are assumed as the
liability of managing his students whether to be active or inactive in the
learning process. Second, in regards to the second research question
which is about interpersonal function, it can be said that the educator was
so courageous to include his students during the time spent instructing
and learning. This is proven by the utilization of most parts of
interrogative mood where the teacher was certainly enamored with
soliciting students a considerable measure from inquiries before he
clarified it himself. He needed the understudies to expand theirs. Lastly,
it is about the third research question which concerns the textual
function. On the use of subjects as a whole, it can be seen that the teacher
in general utilized clear and brief subject when he talked amid his
teaching time. The utilization of a greater amount of direct subject
uncovers that when he used the unmarked theme, he expected the
students to get the messages in a more exact manner with no implied and
ambiguity in the meaning and comprehension.

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Methodist Banda Aceh (Chairunnisa)

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