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Teacher feedback to the student.

This happens in many different ways: error

correction, how close the teacher comes

 to

 the student

physically, the teacher's voice features in talking to

the student, the teacher's fielding of student doubts

and questions, etc.

Teachers' unconscious feedback will include

projections, fantasies, and hidden demands:

Think of a class you currently teach: quickly write

down the names of all the students in the group.

Who heads the list? Whose names can't you

remember? Why that order? You are quite

possibly giving feedback to your students in quite

powerful ways that you are unaware of.

 You

 may

be surprised that X comes at the end of your list,

but maybe she would not be

The problem with this feedback situation is that it is

parental by nature, with power on the side of the

feedback provider. How often does a learner have to

put up with language-corrective feedback that she

does not want or feel ready to absorb at that particular

moment? From the learner's point of view much

teacher feedback is ham-fisted, though it has to be

socially accepted as the teacher is seen to be doing her

job in offering it.

Similar problems attach to other forms of

hierarchically-downward feedback, be it inspectors

sitting in on classes or trainers offering trainees

lesson criticisms. Feedback is seriously deformed if

the recipient does not want it.

Third

 party feedback

  t the end of a course some institutions ask the teachers

to give out feedback forms to the students on how the

course has gone for them. In such end-of-course

feedback students are asked to communicate with

people they sometimes barely know about their own

performance and that of the teachers. It is an odd

situation, in terms of feedback, odd because the aim of

this feedback is to improve the course for the next batch

of students, not for those who have given the feedback.

Feedback is central to any attempt at learner-centred

teaching. It is the central, guiding element. Its place is

harder to determine in a syllabus-focused course, or

one lifted straight out of a coursebook. The areas in

which feedback can affect the process are reduced,

and the teacher is less free to respond to what she

feels,

 hears, and sees in the group.

Modern marketing theory suggests that the best way

to develop new products is by asking potential clients

what they think they need. The slogan is: 'Collect

feedback and act on it.' Learner-centred teaching

works in much the same way.

Ma rio Rinvolucri Pilgrims Canterbu ry and the

Cambridge Academy.

  urther reading

Dufeu B.  1994.  Teaching Myself.  Oxford: Oxford

University P ress.

Gattegno, C. 1976. The  ommon Sense of Teaching

Foreign Languages.  New York: Educational

Solutions.

Krashen

S.

  D.

  and

  T. Terrell.

  1983.  The Natural

Approach: Language Acquisition in the

Classroom.  Oxford: Pergamon.

Register

The concept of  register  comes under the larger

concept of language variation  in applied linguistics.

According to some applied linguists there are two

main types of variation in language, i.e. variation

based on the user of

 language,

 and variation based on

the   use   of language (Gregory 1967). Dialects,

idiolects, sociolects, and genderlects are examples of

the first type, while the language of science and

technology, legal English, the language of

 buying

 and

selling, and the language of classroom interaction

belong to the second type. The term 'register' has

been used to refer to variation according to the use of

language, i.e. functional varieties.

According to de Beaugrande (in Ghadessy 1993) we

can find some rough equivalents of 'register' in

foundational linguistic works, i.e. Pike (1967) refers

to 'the universe of discourse', and Firth (1957) talks

of 'restricted language'. However, it was Halliday

(1978) who eventually gave currency to the term

'register'. Halliday defines register in the following

way:

Types of linguistic situation differ from one

another, broadly speaking, in three respects: first,

as regards what actually is taking place; secondly,

as regards what part the language is playing; and

thirdly, as regards who is taking part. These three

variables, taken together, determine the range

within which meanings are selected and the forms

which are used for their expression. In other

words, they determine the 'register'.

(Halliday 1978:31)

The above three dimensions of register have been

referred to by Halliday and others as the field the

mode and the  tenor  of discourse. Thus, the

fundamental purpose of register analysis is to uncover

the general principles which govern the range of

variation, i.e. to find out 'what situational factors

determine what linguistic features' (Halliday 1978).

Register analysis has been developing very fast in the

last few years. Many people are now working with

examples of genuine texts in the hope of establishing

the linguistic features that characterize them. This is

the focus of two  recent publications (Ghadessy 1988,

1993). In the first of these, for example, Halliday

Key concepts in

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adopts a historical perspective to show how the

language of physical science has evolved, i.e. he

explains the 'prototypical syndrome of features' that

characterize such a register. However, the majority of

studies are synchronic; they deal with the use of

present day spoken and written English in various

contexts of situation.

The most detailed study of the concept of register and

its application to date is by Matthiessen (in Ghadessy

1993). He brings the various approaches to register

analysis under a 'unified theory of register'. Many

references are made here to descriptions—within and

across registers—by several applied linguists in

recent years. These include, among others, the

language of narrative, exposition, history, geography,

physical science, religion, news reporting, service

encounters, business communication, advertising,

classroom interaction, courtroom interaction, gossip,

and caller-operator interaction.

Register analysis has benefited greatly from new

developments in computational linguistics.

Compared to analyses in the past which were based

on a limited amount of spoken and/or written data, we

can now analyse millions of words from any register

to determine the characteristic linguistic and

discoursal features. Several large projects in a

number of universities are now dedicated to register

analysis by using computers, for example the project

called 'Register Profiling' at Sydney University

under the direction of Christian Matthiessen. The

find ings of such research will no doubt strengthen the

foundations of register analysis as a sub-discipline of

applied linguistics.

Mohsen

 Ghadessy Department

 o f

 English Language

and Literature, National University of Singapore.

References

Ghadessy

M. (ed.). 1988.  Registers of Written

English: Situational Factors and Linguistic

Features.

 London: Pinter Publishers.

Ghadessy M. (ed.) 1993. Register Analysis: Theory

and Practice.

 London: Pinter Publishers.

Gregory M. J.  1967. 'Aspects of varieties

differentiation'.

  Journal of Linguistics.

 3:177-98.

Halliday M.

  A.

  K.

  1978.  Language as a Social

Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday M. A. K.

  1991. 'Corpus studies and

probabilistic grammar' in

  English Corpus

Linguistics.

  K. Aijmer and B. Altenberg (eds.).

London: Longman.

Key concepts in ELT

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