A comparative analysis of teacher talk in solo and team teaching*

Despite the benefits of team teaching, it poses significant challenges to the role of local English teachers. Teacher roles, one of such challenges by investigating interactive teacher talk comparing team teaching against solo baseline teaching of the English program in Korea (EPIK) was investigated via this paper. More specifically, instructional language (Korean/English), question types, instructional registers (regulative/ instructional/feedback), and interactive feedback was addressed. The method employed was sampling three sets of team teaching and solo teaching of the same language skills and lessons using the same English textbook in the same area of elementary schools for an appropriate comparison. Their entire teacher talks of the lessons were recorded and transcribed. The transcription of two sets of data was compared by different categories of teacher talk. The analysis results show that native English assistant teachers (NEATs) are more alike to solo Korean teachers of English while Korean teachers of English in team teaching play assisting and mediating roles between NEATs and students. The currently observed role change between NEATs and Korean teachers requires serious attention since the national curriculum is designed for Korean teachers of English to play major roles in teaching English classes.