Linguistic strategies in students’ reflective talk on team teaching in Thai upper secondary English classrooms: A pragmatic analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic strategies used in students’ reflective talk on team teaching in English classrooms and examines how these strategies relate to students’ perceptions of team-teaching effectiveness in a Thai upper secondary school context. Drawing on pragmatic and emancipatory pragmatic frameworks, the study analyzes reflective conversational data obtained from semi-structured interviews with 20 upper secondary students who had experienced team teaching by Thai and foreign English teachers. The analysis identifies five main linguistic strategies used in students’ reflections: feeling-expressing language, opinion-expressing language, presupposition, explication, and hedging. Among these, feeling-expressing and opinion-expressing language occurred most frequently, indicating the central role of affective and evaluative meanings in students’ reflective processes. The findings show that students perceived team teaching as effective in six dimensions: understanding of teacher roles and instructional models, respect for teachers, responsiveness to feedback, emphasis on learning development rather than outcomes, a sense of trust and security in the classroom, and confidence in their ability to achieve learning goals. The results further demonstrate that students’ linguistic choices reflect Thai socio-cultural orientations characterized by interdependence, fun-oriented learning, and collectivist values, which shape how students express opinions, manage politeness, and construct relationships with teachers. By linking pragmatic analysis with classroom reflection and cultural perspectives, this study contributes to research on reflective practice in English language education. It highlights the importance of culturally informed team-teaching approaches in multilingual educational settings.