| It is the teacher’s domain to create an interactive environment in which students can participate, reflect, and gain knowledge from their exchanges. Sinclair and Coulthard's (1975) classic IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) pattern has been regarded as the typical interaction pattern consistently observed in teacher-student interactions in the classroom. Rather than a linear sequence, the IRF framework was reconceptualized as a recurrent, iterative interactional cycle. The complexity and quality of student engagement are influenced by Teacher Talk Moves (TTMs), which mediate the relationship between reaction and feedback. With that in mind, this study was conducted to scrutinize which TTMs teachers used most frequently in the EFL classroom, which nonverbal TTMs they embodied, how these TTMs were used to promote the highest level of student participation in class, and which talk moves students employed in response to the TTMs. Four teachers were selected as participants in this study; the classes observed were video- and audio-recorded, obtaining approximately 30 hours of data. Utilizing Correnti et al. (2015) and Hardman (2020) for categorizing the TTMs, and Hardman’s (2019) for Students Talk Moves (STM). Additionally, employing a multi-layered analytical framework from Walsh (2011), Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC), the Self-Evaluation of Teacher Talk (SETT), and O'Connor & Michaels' (2019) Four Goals for Productive Discussions, the analysis interprets TTMs and gestures as non-verbal TTMs. The findings show that to initiate the conversation in the classes, the four teachers heavily leaned on closed questions, and to keep the conversation going, they tend to implement the TTMs of T expand question and T Repeat with non-verbal moves, particularly Voice Intonation, which was by far the most frequently used across all four teachers. Another striking finding is that, with a total of 288 occurrences, Teachers consistently used Direct Gaze to acknowledge student responses. Gestures with a total of 257 occurrences are also relatively popular among the four teachers for conveying meaning. The TTMs that promote student responses are T expand and T repeat, although minimal responses, such as one-word answers, short phrases, or simple confirmations, were the responses from the students. The limited use of teacher moves such as probing, pressing for reasoning, or asking open-ended questions could be reinforced to prolong the interaction. |