Clarification request

Clarification request is the strategy where the students used to request the explanation of an unfamiliar meaning structure (e.g., Again, please! or Pardon?). The examples of

clarification request taken from the recordings of the pre-and post-speaking tasks are presented below.

Students’ use of clarification request prior to the CS instruction

In the current study, the data showed that the students less frequently employed “clarification request” in their talk. There were only 12 instances of “clarification request” used by the students in the pre-speaking task recordings. The following are the examples of students’ use of “clarification request” in the pre-speaking tasks.

Example 1 (Task 1: Oral Interview)

10 R: OK. What do you think about KMITNB? I mean for example, 11 the places, buildings.

12 B: No, it… Again again.

(Pre-speaking task 1, p.5)

As seen in Example 1, Student B used “Again, again.” to ask the interlocutor to clarify and repeat her words since he did not understand the question. It should be noted that B used “Again, again.” instead of using a more appropriate expression “Again, please!” when he tried to request the explanation.

Besides, sometimes the students used long phrases or sentences to ask for explanation from the interlocutor, as seen in Example 2 below.

Example 2 (Task 1: Oral Interview) 44 R: What are your hobbies? 45 N: What does it mean “hobby”?

(Pre-speaking task 1, pp.5-6)

In Example 2, Student N used “clarification request” to ask for explanation of an unfamiliar word “hobby” when he asked “What does it mean hobby?” Since he knew that his interlocutor was more proficient in English than him, he asked her to clarify and explain the word for him. These results showed that before the CS instruction, some students could employ “clarification request” though they have never learned to use this strategy.

In summary, the data showed that some students were able to use “clarification

request” before they attended the CS instruction class. However, there was one case in which the use of “clarification request” might be considered inappropriate. That is, one student said “Again, again.” rather than “Again, please!” to ask for clarification from the interlocutor. However, the use of “Again, again.” was acceptable and understandable since the interlocutor agreed to clarify and repeat her words.

Students’ use of clarification request after the CS instruction

In the current study, there was a total increase of 11 instances of “clarification request” use in the post-speaking task recordings in comparison to “clarification request” use in the pre-speaking task recordings. These results showed that the students hardly used “clarification request” when they faced communication problems. The following are examples of “clarification request” employed by the students after the 12-week CS instruction.

Example 1 (Task 1: Oral Interview)

32 R: In Engineering building. OK. What are your classes like? What are 33 your classes like?

34 H: Uh… (pause: 5 seconds) I I think that…um…it’s (pause: 5 seconds) 35 um…Could you explain the meaning?

(Post-speaking task 1, p.29)

In this example, Student H employed “clarification request” to ask the interlocutor to explain the unfamiliar meaning of the question “What are your classes like?” Since he was confused and did not understand the question, he stopped explaining and asked “Could you explain the meaning?” in line 35. From this example, it seemed that H felt more confident in using the taught expression in “clarification request” when he used it to ask the interlocutor back.

In Example 2, the students showed more attempts to use phrases of “clarification request” they learned from the CS instruction class.

Example 2 (Task 1: Oral Interview)

28 R: Alright. Where do you like going on the campus? 29 N: Um…uh…I don’t understand. Please speak again.

(Post-speaking task 1, p.32)

As seen in Example 2, Student N employed a clarification request strategy in his talk when he stated “I don’t understand. Please speak again.” In this case, Student N did not understand the researcher’s question so he asked the researcher to clarify the question immediately. These results suggest that the practice of “clarification request” might make the students feel more confident in taking risks to use the taught strategies when they had communication difficulties.

The use of “clarification request” was also found in students’ performance in Task 4, as seen in Example 3.

Example 3 (Task 4: Conversation Task)

23 B: Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh…huh. I don’t like online game. 24 P: What’s the kind of game?

25 B: Um… 26 P: Action?

27 B: Action and Sport Sport games.

(Post-speaking task 4, p.5)

In Example 3, Students P and B discussed a kind of game they would play at home. In line 24, P was not sure what game B mentioned so she asked B to explain and specify the kind of game they would play together. P solved her communication problem by applying the phrases in “clarification request” she has studied. Finally, she could maintain the conversation with her interlocutor.

To summarise, the data from the post-speaking tasks revealed that the students showed more attempts to use “clarification request” after they attended the CS instruction. They tended to use “clarification request” more appropriately and became more confident in using this strategy when they made it clear that they did not understand the interlocutor’s words or utterances. They, for example, stated “Could you explain the meaning?” and “I don’t understand. Please speak again.” However, the students tended to less frequently make use of “clarification request” although they had already

received the CS instruction. One possible explanation was that they rarely used “clarification request” in their talk. In addition, it was possible that the nature of tasks might influence and affect the students’ use of “clarification request”. That is, the students tended to use “clarification request” in an oral interview and a conversation task more frequently than they did in a cartoon description task and a topic description task.