Confirmation check

Confirmation check is the strategy where the students repeat the words that the interlocutor has said to confirm what they heard is correct or not (e.g., You mean…, right?, So you mean…?). The examples of “confirmation check” taken from the recordings of the pre-and post-speaking tasks are presented below.

Students’ use of confirmation check prior to the CS instruction

Before the 12-week CS instruction, the results showed that some students were able to employ a confirmation check strategy in their talk. There were 29 instances of

“confirmation check” used by the students in the pre-speaking task recordings. However, it should be noted that the students repeated only the part of the

examples of students’ use of “confirmation check” which emerged in the pre-speaking tasks.

Example 1 (Task1: Oral Interview)

62 R: Have you ever been to the fitness centre? 63 P: Fitness? Fitness, here or…?

64 R: Yes, or anywhere else.

65 P: I never. (Pre-speaking task 1, p.2)

Example 2 (Task3: Topic Description)

1 R: Could you please talk about “marriage”?

2 E: “Marriage”? Uh…huh. Marriage, I think marriage means…uh…two 3 persons…uh…man and woman…uh…two persons love…uh…and…uh…

(Pre-speaking task 3, p.15)

In Example 1, Student P used a confirmation check strategy by repeating the word “fitness” (line 63) because she was not sure if the word she heard was correct or not. This strategy helped her understand the question when the interlocutor confirmed what she heard was right. In Example 2, Student E was asked to describe the abstract topic about “marriage”. However, he was not sure about the word he had heard so he repeated the word “marriage” to confirm whether he was right or not in line 2. This strategy might help him feel more confident and continue his talk with the interlocutor.

To summarise, the results showed that some students were able to use “confirmation check” before they attended the 12-week CS instruction. They used “confirmation check” when they did not sufficiently understand what was said by the interlocutor. They sometimes repeated the part of the interlocutor’s words or utterances if they were unsure whether they were right.

Students’ use of confirmation check after the CS instruction

As mentioned earlier, “confirmation check” is the strategy that allows the students to check what they heard is correct or not. This section reveals the results of students’ use of “confirmation check” after 12-week CS instruction. In the current study, some useful phrases in “confirmation check” (see Appendix K) were introduced to the students. After the 12-week CS instruction, the data showed that there was a total increase of 66 instances of “confirmation check” use in the post-speaking task

recordings in comparison to “confirmation check” use in the pre-speaking task recordings. The students tended to be more confident in using some taught phrases in “confirmation check” when they did not understand and were unsure what

interlocutors have said to them. The following are some examples of students’ use of some taught phrases in “confirmation check” after the CS instruction.

Example 1 (Task 1: Oral Interview)

103 R: So your mother is a teacher in the pre-primary school or in the kindergarten. 104 OK. What is your mother like?

105 D: Um…sorry you you ask me about she looks like? 106 R: Yeah.

(Post-speaking task 1, p.15)

From the above conversation, Student D used the taught expressions in “confirmation check”. Since she was not sure about the question, she attempted to rephrase the question according to her understanding when she stated “Um…sorry you you ask me about she looks like” (line 105). This repeat would make the interlocutor understand and restate her question.

Apart from Example 1, the students also used “confirmation check” when they tried to refer to the response of the interlocutor’s utterances to confirm their understanding, as seen in Example 2 below.

Example 2 (Task 4: Conversation Task)

20 B: But I I don’t like play game online. I like play computer game manual, not 21 online.

22 P: Oh! It it’s like Play two (Play station two)?

23 B: Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh…huh. I don’t like online game.

(Post-speaking task 4, p.5)

From the above example, Students B and P discussed their plan at home and B talked about a computer game. However, P was not sure about the kind of game B mentioned to. Thus she employed a confirmation check strategy by repeating the words and checking her understanding when she stated “Oh! It it’s like Play two” (line 22). Finally, she was confirmed by B that what she had heard was correct and this made her more confident in continuing her conversation.

In Example 3, another pair of students talked about their plans at the beach and one of them used a confirmation check strategy in his talk by repeating all or part of the interlocutor’s preceding utterances.

Example 3 (Task 4: Conversation Task)

11 G: Oh! Yes. I I like. Uh…after I eat seafood and you we…uh…I and you go to 12 to the the beach. You want go to the beach?

13 H: You you mean…uh…before eat seafood, they what do you do? (laugh)

(Post-speaking task 4, p.28)

From the above conversation, Student G suggested that they would go to the beach after they finished their meal. However, Student H wanted to check whether he was right or not about the plan so he rephrased G’s utterances. Even though H

misunderstood a bit about the plan, they ignored it and continued their conversation.

In summary, the results from the post-speaking tasks showed that a confirmation check strategy was used by all students when they did not sufficiently understand what was said by their interlocutor. They repeated all or part of the interlocutor’s utterances and sometimes provided other words. In addition, they showed more attempts to use some taught phrases in “confirmation check” in the post-speaking tasks. The teaching of “confirmation check” might give the students more confidence in using this strategy in order to continue their conversation and negotiate the meaning with their

interlocutor.