Negotiating Meaning in Classroom Interaction: A Case Study of Teacher Talk in Manado Elementary Schools, Indonesia

This research examines teacher talk in elementary classes in Manado, Indonesia, focusing on how this verbal practice affects meaning negotiation and classroom interactions. Despite the reform of the latest curriculum driving a more interactive pedagogical approach, empirical research at the elementary school level, particularly in multilingual environments where the foundations of basic communication are formed, remains limited. Data were collected through classroom observations at three schools in Manado over one semester, yielding 1,248 speech acts. These were then analyzed using the frameworks of interactional sociolinguistics, Second Language Acquisition (SLA), dialogic pedagogy, and the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) model. The analysis showed that teacher talk was dominated by commands, questions, and explanations, which ensured control of the learning process. However, this limited students’ participation and autonomy. Negotiation strategies such as checking for confirmations, asking for clarification, and providing feedback appeared sporadically, while students’ turns to respond rarely occurred. Examples of code-switching to Melayu Manado served to facilitate comprehension and bridge cultural meaning, while also highlighting the mediating role of teacher talk in a multilingual class. These findings show that communicative practices today, despite their effectiveness in class management, limit participation and inclusivity in dialogue. This study suggests that educational programs further emphasize dialogic pedagogy, feedback that centers on material comprehension, and the use of local language in the learning process to increase comprehension, participation, and equity. By centering attention on teacher talk, this study contributes to research on teacher talk and the global discussion regarding dialogic pedagogy, drawing on empirical evidence from the content of a multilingual elementary school that has yet to be fully explored.