【Teachinng Practice Report】

Reflections on an unexpected presentation of turn-taking
difficulties in an English discussion class
Jonathan Hennessy
Abstract
In this paper, I reflect on a journal kept over the last six lessons with intermediate level Japanese learners of English
in Rikkyo University’s English Discussion Class. The class in question was observed to speak excessively withoutyielding the floor and then get stuck unsuccessfully trying to negotiate for meaning. Observations from otherteachers’ previous work and a review of the journal entries suggest that in addition to using language too far above
the group’s linguistic ability, problems with turn-taking and signaling comprehension are likely contributing factors
to the difficulties that were observed. Feedback and advice targeted at beginning with simple, easy to understandutterances led to a positive improvement toward the end of the semester, but without repeating the advice in a later
lesson, the improvements did not continue. It is suggested that identifying the problem earlier and repeating theadvice for multiple lessons may have helped create lasting change and hope to better identify and address similar
problems in the future.
Keywords: turn-taking, comprehension, teacher journal

Introduction
All incoming first-year students at Rikkyo University are required to take one semester of an
English Discussion Class (EDC). The goals for the class are based around building communicative
abilities with a specific focus on developing fluency and the ability to negotiate for meaning. Students
are also taught specific “Discussion Skill” phrases to help scaffold their communicative abilities,
helping to make themselves more easily understood and helping to take turns and share speaking
time in their discussion groups. During the semester, students are expected to develop the ability to
discuss contemporary issues with their classmates entirely in English (Hurling, 2012). In the spring
2021 semester, classes began in person for either two or three lessons, depending on the specificclass, before switching to an online format using the Zoom platform as a response to the ongoingcoronavirus pandemic. This paper will follow the challenges and progress of one intermediate level
discussion class that had three face-to-face lessons before continuing online for 11 out of the 14 total
EDC lessons.
For most students, this is their first class that focuses so heavily on communication, and manyof them have never tried to sustain a group discussion in English prior to starting in the EDC. As
such, it is normal for students to struggle with navigating their discussions. In previous semesters, it
was common for students to struggle to speak due to shyness or a self-perceived lack of language
ability. However, in the spring 2021 semester, one class exhibited a different problem with
communication. Some students would regularly hold the floor and speak for an excessively long
period of time while simultaneously being unable to clearly explain the ideas that they were trying toshare. It seemed that the speaker may have lacked the vocabulary to explain an idea clearly or thatthey may not have been able to simplify an idea to the level that their classmates could understand it.
As these students were speaking, their classmates usually waited patiently despite their lack ofunderstanding, without ever stopping the student during their turn to ask for clarification. In many
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cases, this was followed up with failed attempts at negotiation for meaning as another student would
try to explain the first speaker’s ideas to the group and again often hold the floor despite theirclassmates not being able to understand this attempt at paraphrasing. In the end, students spent a lotof time frustrated and unable to move on their discussions because they were stuck trying to clarify
too many comprehension problems at the same time.
Early in the semester, with the first lessons being face-to-face and into the first few online
lessons, nothing stood out as particularly unusual. Some students struggled, using the new discussion
skills they were learning, and some students struggled in communicating whether they understoodtheir classmates, but the class did not seem to have any unique difficulties early on. In my experience,these challenges were not unusual in the EDC. Most classes will have some difficulty acquiring thenew phrases they are taught, and many classes will have some difficulty conveying theircomprehension or lack thereof. The early topics of discussion were concrete and relatable to thestudents’ own experiences which certainly made the discussions approachable. When these students
did possess the language ability to discuss a topic, they did fine.
However, in the seventh lesson, students were asked to discuss “The Globalization of Japanese
Culture” and the discussions seemed to run into problems that I had not expected. In that lesson, twoof the eight students present were marked for poor participation and six of the eight students weremarked low in their use of communication skills, a measure of their attempts to communicatecomprehension and solve communication problems. Initially, I just thought it was an off day or adifficult topic, but the class continued to have similar problems in the next two classes, including
their second discussion test in the ninth lesson. This was when I noticed that the groups would getstuck trying to understand each other on a more challenging idea and would derail their discussion
trying to solve that issue, failing to move the discussion forward and leaving the students to finish theactivity frustrated, without really having gotten to discuss the topic. After the second discussion test
lesson, I felt like I was starting to understand what was happening and began to keep a short journal
after classes to better understand the students’ behavior and to look for ways to help the students
navigate their discussions more successfully.
Looking at past articles from other teachers teaching the EDC gave me a starting point forevaluating my notes, diagnosing the problem, and helping the students to improve. Webster (2018)
wrote about working with shy or introverted students and noted that the students he observed were
often hesitant to speak and would even pass on taking a turn rather than offering their opinion. This
wouldn’t explain the tendency of some students to speak excessively but may have been part of thereason that their classmates were unwilling to stop them to clarify and instead waiting until they
stopped speaking on their own. Young (2014) suggested that students struggle with turn-taking andnoticed that a failure to signify the end of one’s turn and demonstrate that the floor was open led to
students struggling to identify the appropriate time to start speaking. This could explain why
students failed to speak up early and prevent the speaker from continuing when they were not being
understood. It could also suggest that the speaker may be unsure of how to finish their turn and may
keep talking waiting for some signal that another speaker is ready. Young (2015) also noted thatstudents seemed to follow a limited number of strategies for passing turns, meaning that if individual
students were not leaving a clear chance for one of these transitions, the group may not be able tochange speakers effectively. Hennessy (2020) found that more advanced students sometimes choseto give the entirety of their thoughts on a topic at once, only fully yielding the floor when their ideas
were completely explained. He also noted that students did not seem to naturally want to commenton the ideas of other students in a discussion and often struggled to interact with another student’s95

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idea. This could be an explanation for the student who spoke excessively, that they intended to share
all of their thoughts at once but lacked the language ability to do so clearly. Kambe (2015) added
another useful observation, noting that students frequently found themselves limited by vocabulary
and were frustrated by their inability to express their ideas. This seemed to be a certainty in thisgroup, where they clearly had ideas that they wanted to share but were not able to do so clearly.
Combining this research with my own previous observations of students taking this course did giveme some insight into potential reasons for the students struggles. As topics became more abstract
and challenging students were likely struggling with a lack of vocabulary and their struggles with
turn-taking and potential hesitancy to interject may have created situations where they were unable
to find an appropriate time to begin negotiating for meaning. In the end, they were forced to try tosolve multiple communication breakdowns simultaneously. While this negotiation for meaning andsolving of communication problems should be an opportunity for language acquisition (Mackey,
1999; Toth & Davin, 2016), the attempt to solve the problem usually came too late for the students tobe able to fully fix their comprehension problems, inevitably leading to further frustration.
The question then became, how could this problem be addressed? Young (2015) suggested thatstudents needed to be taught strategies for signaling the end of their turn. Hennessy (2020)
suggested tailoring feedback to specifically focus on turn-taking. Hart (2019) noted the importanceof group dynamics for successful discussions and focused on how influential students have the ability
to improve or derail a discussion. Suzuki (2018) noted the value of feedback focused on how students’
own behavior was impacting their classroom and their discussions. Kean (2018) found that students
in the EDC seemed to respond best to positive feedback about their successes in a discussion. I also
referred to Krashen (2009) and the Input Hypothesis, emphasizing that for students to progress andsucceed in a target language, they needed comprehensible input that was close to their current level.
If students continued to fail to understand their discussions, it would be unlikely that they would
improve. It has also been found that despite the value in attempting to solve communication problems
and get to this comprehensible input, non-native speakers do sometimes pretend to understandrather than entering the process of negotiation of meaning (Zwaard & Bannink, 2016). This would
suggest that just asking them to work together when they fail to understand something would
certainly be insufficient.
In order to successfully navigate a discussion and see an improvement in English skills, it would
be necessary to help students have a discussion where they were able to successfully transition
between speakers and produce content that was comprehensible to their classmates. This paper will
review my teaching journal entries for the final six lessons and will explain how I attempted to help
the students work together more effectively.

Discussion
Journal Entries
I began keeping a journal for this class after the second discussion test in the ninth lesson. In
that first entry, I wrote that a few students seemed to be happy to volunteer to speak and share theiropinions but that they would often attempt to explain something that they either lacked the language
abilities to explain clearly or that was too much for their classmates to understand. This led toextended periods of negotiation for meaning and hurt the group’s ability to move their discussion
forward. One student in particular stood out as speaking excessively and I wrote a note for feedback
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that they needed to relax and that just talking was more important than worrying about whether what
they said was “correct.” For a different group, I wrote that students needed to take shorter turns andyield the floor more readily to help the entire group have more chances to speak.
In the following lesson students were asked to discuss using English at work and work-lifebalance. Their new target language was meant to help them discuss different viewpoints to allow for
more perspectives in their discussion. I noted that students were hesitant to interrupt each other andthat they rarely asked questions. They also did very little to show whether they understood theirclassmates. In a few cases, students did hold the floor for a longer period of time, and as an observer,
it seemed to me that they were explaining more than they needed to. In this lesson, I tried to give thisclass advice that I had often given to classes that were quiet when listening in the past and encouraged
them to do more to show their classmates if they understood or not. A few students did take thisadvice in their second discussion, but most still continued to be quiet listeners. The behavior of
speakers did not change, and students continued to explain more than necessary.
The 11th lesson focused on social media and students discussed students and social media as
well as society and social media. The new target language was related to balancing their opinions bydiscussing the advantages and disadvantages of the topic. Students made good use of the target
language in the first discussion, and it helped to keep their discussion moving when compared to theprevious two lessons. I wrote that they were not discussing each other’s ideas but that using thetarget language did help them share their ideas and seemed to help them pass the turn to anotherspeaker. However, the second discussion again included long turns with excessive explanation thatwas difficult for the group to understand. Following the second discussion, I gave post-activity
feedback that they should start simple and then volunteer to speak again later if they still had
something to share for a given topic.
The 12th lesson was one of the most problematic of the semester. The students were expected totalk about punishments for petty and serious crimes and were given the discussion skill of asking forand giving sources for the information they used in their discussions. This topic and discussion skill
have been difficult for many classes in the past and students often have difficulty coming up with ananswer they are comfortable with. This class was no different. In the first discussion I wrote that,while some students did seem to remember to use the target language, they struggled with finding agood place to interject to ask their classmates about their ideas. Students also struggled to support
their opinions. After the discussion I reminded students that they needed to support their opinions
and gave them some examples of places in their discussions where it would have beneficial tointerject to ask their classmates for a source. In the second discussion students discussed thepunishment for serious crimes and most of the students struggled to clearly explain their thoughts.
It seemed like the listeners were often struggling to understand the speaker. I noticed multiple
occasions where a student provided a great opportunity for their classmates to ask them about theirideas, but the listeners would rarely pick up on this chance. I also saw few attempts to clarify andsolve communication issues. Students instead just let the turns pass without interacting with eachother’s ideas at all. With the final discussion test coming in the next class, I wrote a note to myselfthat I needed to emphasize simplicity to the students in the preparation activities they would do
before their test if they were to have a chance of having a successful discussion.
The final discussion test was administered in the 13th lesson. Students were given no new
language to use, and their topics were ways to reduce poverty and possible solutions to the aging
population problem in Japan. Based on my notes from the previous class, I decided that I wouldemphasize starting with short, simple answers from the beginning of the lesson. Students had two97

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practice discussions on the topics with classmates who would not be in their group for the test, andbefore each practice, I asked the students to start with simple, easy to understand answers and told
them that they could speak a second time later if they felt they had something more to say. They
seemed to take my advice, and while they rarely took the opportunity to speak again on a topic, they
their speaking turns shorter and linguistically simpler, and they were able to understand each otherand move the discussion forward. After the practice, the students changed groups and had an
extended discussion. I observed the groups one at a time, and I reminded them once more before
starting their discussions to start simple and speak more than once on a topic if they felt they had
more to say. All three groups seemed to take this advice and I wrote in my journal that the class had
their best discussions of the semester. Students did still struggle to ask questions about theirclassmates’ ideas, but they did a better job of signaling comprehension, and they were able to buildon what their classmates said instead of answering the question from the beginning every time theychanged speaker. I wrote that one group quickly used many of the discussion skills they were
expected to and for another group I wrote that they were doing more follow-up and taking more
speaking turns compared to their usual behavior. I wrote that this lesson suggested to me that a key
part of being able to work as a group is ensuring that each student produces output that isunderstandable for the entire group.
The last lesson of the semester was a review and after the success of the previous lesson, I
thought it was unnecessary to emphasize simplicity and turn-taking again. I was quickly provenwrong as students reverted to their old habits. The topics for this lesson were how to have good
discussions and how to gain skills and personal qualities while at university. In both discussions, a
few students held the floor for an unnecessarily long period of time and talked themselves into a
corner where they were unsure whether their ideas were understood. Their classmates did notinterject to clarify and when the speaker yielded the floor the listeners didn’t have an easy way tocomment on what the previous speaker had said. Interestingly, their discussions on having a good
discussion did shed some light on the problems they had. Students said that when they were quiet
listeners the whole group was shy. They also stated that they thought asking questions waschallenging for their group. A few students said if they had more knowledge on a topic they could talkmore smoothly. This suggested to me that students were unsure of themselves with some of the
discussion topics and that they needed more help identifying the appropriate times to join into a
discussion to ask questions as well as when to yield the floor as a speaker.

Reflection
My first instinct when trying to help this class was to focus on how some students would try to
speak beyond their current abilities. Looking back at my journal does make me think that while thiswas likely part of the issue, it was certainly not the entire problem. In addition to the comments about
students struggling to understand each other when they did attempt to negotiate for meaning onthese difficult ideas, many of my notes were about listeners not demonstrating whether they
understood the speaker and speakers not yielding the floor until they had already said too much fortheir classmates to interact with. When thinking about my notes and considering the work of otherteachers in the program it seems reasonable to suggest that difficulties with signaling the end of a
speaking turn and a hesitation to interject while another student is speaking contributed to thestudents struggles with comprehension and interaction. This also means that there are more ways
for me to address this issue if it arises in future classes and lets me avoid simply telling students to98

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limit themselves when speaking and not encouraging them to push their limits.
The success in the 13th lesson in emphasizing starting simple is something I need to remember
for future classes. In addition to helping in this situation, where students sometimes spoke beyond
their classmates’ ability to understand, it seemed to have very positive effects on turn-taking, aproblem that has been detailed quite a bit in the EDC (Hennessy, 2020; Young, 2014; Young, 2015). I
wish that I had emphasized this earlier with this class and I will remember for future classes how
effective it was when I repeated the advice multiple times in a single lesson. This may even be
beneficial for classes that struggle with turn-taking without the comprehension issues present in thisclass.
This experience also really solidified the importance of focusing on how different classes are
unique and the value of targeting the specific problems each class has with efficient feedback. It canbe easy as a teacher to focus on using the new target language and telling students to work together
more if they do not understand each other, but that is not enough if there is a different issue that isholding the class back. By looking more closely at a specific behavior that I had not seen before andby targeting the problems that were specific to this one class, I was able to help them make
improvements for an important discussion test and have a better discussion than they had previously
been able to. If I can improve at identifying problems like this and target them earlier and more
frequently, I should be able to help more students succeed.

Conclusion
Students can struggle for a variety of reasons when trying to have discussions in their second
language. One of the most important roles of the teacher is helping them identify their problems andgiving them strategies for improvement. While the students in my class did struggle for most of thelessons for which I kept a journal, they were able to have an effective and communicative discussion
in their discussion test lesson when given appropriate advice and feedback. This experience has leftme better prepared for classes that have similar problems in the future.
Keeping a journal helped me to understand the problem better than I would have otherwise as
well. The advice to start simple helped this class, but the problem was not simply that students were
trying to speak beyond their abilities as I first thought. They were also struggling to signal
comprehension and to effectively pass the turn. These struggles are something I have seen before,
and I was simply distracted by a new nuance. I believe in the future, I will be able to understand why
a class is struggling earlier in the semester.
This paper also provides more evidence to the necessity of appropriately targeted feedback andadvice. The difference in performance in their final discussion test when they were strongly
encouraged to start simple was very clear and it seems very likely that emphasizing this point early
and repeating it really could have helped this class. The fact that the improvement didn’t carry overto the next lesson does suggest that repetition will be important in making lasting changes, but alsosuggests that addressing problems with comprehension and turn-taking before beginning activities
may be more effective than only giving feedback after the fact.

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