Formal and Informal Talks of Lecturers in EFL Classroom Interaction

This research aimed to discover the characteristics of formal and informal talks of lecturers in EFL classroom. Adopting a qualitative research approach, the researcher collected the data by conducting classroom observations and interview. The research was conducted at the first and fifth semester groups of English Study Program of IAIN Bone. The formal talks which occurred in EFL classroom consist of six characteristics. They were (1) neutral lexis, (2) full form, (3) politeness phenomena, (4) careful turn taking and (5) incongruent mood choice (6) modality for suggestion. The informal talks which occurred in EFL classroom were (1) colloquial lexis, (2) interruption/overlapping, (3) first name/nickname, (4) typical mood choice, (5) modal for probability and (6) modal to express opinion. Meanwhile there were four new characteristics of informal talk which appeared in lecturers’ talks. They were (1) regional term, (2) discourse marker, (3) contraction and (4) ellipses sentence. The result shows that the characteristic of formal talk which was frequently used by teacher was full form particularly in asking question. Whereas informal talk happened frequently when teacher delivered material in the form of contraction. Keywords: Formal and Informal talks, lecturers’ talk