Repair strategies in EFL classroom talk

Abstract

This study investigated the repair strategies employed by Iranian female and male intermediate EFL learners to find out if there were differences in the usage of repair strategies by class type (single-gender vs. mixed-gender) and the gender of the learners and the teacher. The participants of the study were 32 EFL learners (16 males and 16 females). At first, all of the learners were assigned to a mixed-gender class and the textbook was taught to them during 16 sessions (eight sessions with a male teacher and eight sessions with a female teacher). Then the learners were divided into two single-gender classes and teaching of the textbook continued for the two classes. All the sessions were video recorded. Then, the learners' repair strategies were analyzed through the study. The results revealed three important findings. First, single-classes used more repair strategies than mixed-classes. Second, there was no difference in using the repair strategies based on the gender of the learners, irrespective of the gender of the teacher. Third, there was no difference in using the repair strategies based on the gender of the teacher. The findings add new information to L2 research on repair strategies and, pedagogically speaking, the findings of the study have implications for EFL teachers and students. © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.