外国人指導助手（ALT）の教師的役割を形成する英語教師の振る舞い—中学校のティームティーチング授業を対象とした会話分析研究—Promoting Assistant Language Teachers’ Roles in Team-Teaching Classrooms: A Conversation Analytic Study in Japanese Junior High Schools
Authors: Ishino Mika 
Published: April 2021

近年の学校英語教育では、英語を母語とする外国人指導助手（Assistant Language Teacher：ALT）と、日本語を母語とする英語教師（Japanese Teacher of English：JTE）が共に授業を行うティームティーチングが推奨されている（文科省，2016）。しかし実際の授業ではALTの役割が軽視されるという問題が指摘されてきた（Tajino & Tajino, 2000）。本研究ではこの問題を背景に、授業におけるJTEのどのような振る舞いがALTの役割を軽視、または重視することにつながるのかを明らかにする。中学校におけるティームティーチング授業の15時間分の録画データを会話分析により検証した結果、ALTに評価の機会を与えないというJTEの振る舞いがALTの役割を軽視することにつながる実践として観察された。また反対に、ALTに生徒への評価を委ねるというJTEの振る舞いがALTの役割の重要性を演出することが明らかになった。会話分析により記述されたこのようなJTEの実践は、他のJTEがティームティーチング授業で方略的に活用できる実践知である。

To enhance the internationalization of school education, the Japanese Ministry of Education is hiring native English speakers as assistant language teachers (ALTs) (MEXT, 2016). ALTs are expected to provide students with authentic English-speaking resources in team-teaching classes with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). However, ALTs’ underestimated role in these team-teaching classes has been reported as a substantial problem. ALTs have frequently been called “human tape recorders” (Mahoney, 2004), as they are often only required to play the role of a model speaker in the class. Although many studies point to the problem of ALTs not being included in the classroom (Takeda, 2017) and suggest that their lack of awareness as teachers in team-teaching classrooms is caused by JTE practices during the classes, no practical solutions have yet been suggested for appropriate teacher trainings based on empirical research. Therefore, this study will examine which kinds of JTE practices work for promoting or demoting the ALT’s role in team-teaching classrooms.

In order to analyze teacher practices during team-teaching classes in detail, many previous studies have employed conversation analysis (CA) (Aline & Hosoda, 2006; Lee, 2016; Park, 2014). Those studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the method for understanding the complex interactional practices of the teachers in team-teaching classes. Thus, this study also employed CA as a useful application for examining detailed JTE practices during team-teaching classes with ALTs. Using CA, the researcher conducted a comparative case study on 15 team-teaching lessons of two pairs of team teachers (each pair consisting of an ALT and a JTE) in two public junior high schools. Using these data from two pairs of teachers, an analytic focus was placed on how these teachers shared their turn-takings in “Initiation-Responses-Evaluation (IRE) sequences” (Mehan, 1979), which have been frequently analyzed in previous studies (e.g., Lee, 2016) as an analytic framework for classroom interactions.

The analysis revealed that when one of the ALTs took over the floor for evaluation, it made a significant impact by promoting and raising the ALT’s role as a teacher in the team-teaching lesson. Even for cases in which the JTE (the ALT’s teaching partner) initiated IRE sequences by taking turns for evaluation, the ALT promoted his or her own role in the lesson. Interestingly, in all cases, the ALT took turns for evaluation, only after initiation by the JTE. In contrast, because the ALT in other cases did not take turns for evaluations or initiations of IRE sequence, the ALT’s role was underestimated, and was viewed as a “human tape recorder” in the classroom. The ALT’s loss of opportunity for evaluation was caused by the JTE’s taking over the former’s turn for evaluation. These findings show that a key practice for promoting the role of ALTs in the team-teaching classrooms is for JTEs to hand over the evaluation to ALTs.

The findings of this study suggest that teachers taking turns for evaluation in an IRE sequence helps promote the significance of the teachers’ roles in the classroom. This is particularly important given the complex classroom setting of team-teaching in Japan. Providing turns for ALTs to conduct evaluations in IRE sequences would be useful practical knowledge for JTEs to organize better team-teaching classes. Although this exploratory study only observed two pairs of team-teaching lessons, the findings of this study will contribute to providing a practical guide for future trainings for team teaching in Japan.