Classroom Discourse Competence

In language learning contexts, the role of the language teacher is a particularly crucial one: it is the teacher who, through and with their use of (the foreign) language, has a significant influence on the extent to which language learners are linguistically/cognitively activated, and thus determines whether processes of language learning are initiated and promoted, or perhaps even impeded or prevented. Thus, it is of utmost importance for language teachers to acquire a high level of classroom discourse competence (CDC) - a professional competence that goes far beyond the notions of FL proficiency and communicative competence. Located at the intersection of theory, classroom research and practical approaches to (E)FL teacher education, Classroom Discourse Competence: Current Issues in Language Teaching and Teacher Education offers university students, trainee teachers, in-service teachers and teacher educators a comprehensive conceptualization of CDC (Part I). Furthermore, the chapters in this book explore facets of CDC (Part II) and present good-practice examples of CDC development in the context of pre-service teacher education (Part III).

In the World Library of Educationalists series, international scholars themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces—extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/or practical contributions—so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers thus are able to follow the themes and strands of their work and see their contribution to the development of a field, as well as the development of the field itself. Contributors to the series include: Michael Apple, James A. Banks, Joel Spring, William F. Pinar, Stephen J. Ball, Elliot Eisner, Howard Gardner, John Gilbert, Ivor F. Goodson, and Peter Jarvis. In this volume, Courtney B. Cazden, renowned educational sociolinguist, brings together a selection of her seminal work, organized around three themes: development of individual communicative competence in both oral and written language and discourse; classroom interaction in learning and teaching; and social justice/educational equity issues in wider contexts beyond the classroom. Since the 1970s, Cazden has been a key figure in the ethnography of schooling, focusing on children’s linguistic development (both oral and written) and the functions of language in formal education, primarily but not exclusively in the United States. Combining her experiences as a former primary schoolteacher with the insight and methodological rigor of a trained ethnographer and linguist, Cazden helped to establish ethnography and discourse analysis as central methodologies for analyzing classroom interaction. This capstone volume highlights her major contributions to the field.

In language learning contexts, the role of the language teacher is a particularly crucial one: it is the teacher who, through and with their use of (the foreign) language, has a significant influence on the extent to which language learners are linguistically/cognitively activated, and thus determines whether processes of language learning are initiated and promoted, or perhaps even impeded or prevented. Thus, it is of utmost importance for language teachers to acquire a high level of classroom discourse competence (CDC) - a professional competence that goes far beyond the notions of FL proficiency and communicative competence. Located at the intersection of theory, classroom research and practical approaches to (E)FL teacher education, Classroom Discourse Competence: Current Issues in Language Teaching and Teacher Education offers university students, trainee teachers, in-service teachers and teacher educators a comprehensive conceptualization of CDC (Part I). Furthermore, the chapters in this book explore facets of CDC (Part II) and present good-practice examples of CDC development in the context of pre-service teacher education (Part III).

This book is about classroom discourse and looks particularly at the relationship between language, interaction and learning.

This study analyses examples of classroom discourse, one of the most important influences on students? experience in schools, in EFL classes. The central idea of the author?s enquiry is to compare classroom discourse in two secondary schools in two European countries, namely Austria on the one hand, and Spain on the other hand. The focus of the study is on EFL classes taught by a team of a non-native speaker teacher and a native speaker assistant. The purposes of this study are to gain insights into classroom communication, to compare classroom discourse in two different countries to see whether culturally specific rules of classroom communication might apply, and to investigate the contact situation of two different (if existent) communication strategies in classroom discourse. Therefore, the study aims to answer the following research question: Do the cultural modes of classroom communication in EFL classes (taught by a team of a teacher and an assistant) differ from each other? The data needed for this study were collected by means of video-recording; audio-portions were transcribed; and the data was analysed using methods of Conversational Analysis. The author focuses in particular on turn-taking, the occurrence of the IRE / IRF sequence and simultaneous speech, as well as restarts and pauses. The analysis shows how certain conversational structures, such as simultaneous speech or the IRE / IRF sequence, work in classroom discourse. The results hint at different cultural modes of classroom communication, the main differences concerning the presence of the teacher in the discourse, the degree of smoothness with which the discourse proceeds and the students? degree of involvement in communication. Furthermore, the data shows that different communication strategies are indeed used in classes taught by a team. Interaction with an assistant might increase students? talking time and might, if the assistant is given enough freedom, also result in more fluent student discourse. In addition, the data suggests that some communication strategies are preferable in the context of EFL teaching with the aim of enhancing communicative competence, namely not interfering with regard to content, not selecting next speakers, and offering open discussion activities.

Offering an interdisciplinary approach, The Handbook of Classroom Discourse and Interaction presents a series of contributions written by educators and applied linguists that explores the latest research methodologies and theories related to classroom language. • Organized to facilitate a critical understanding of how and why various research traditions differ and how they overlap theoretically and methodologically • Discusses key issues in the future development of research in critical areas of education and applied linguistics • Provides empirically-based analysis of classroom talk to illustrate theoretical claims and methodologies • Includes multimodal transcripts, an emerging trend in education and applied linguistics, particularly in conversation analysis and sociocultural theory

This work examines spoken language as a field of study, looking at the various ways in which we can both theorize the place of talk in education, and examine the way talk is actually done in educational settings. It brings quite different and important perspectives to the study of education. It is relevant to teachers at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and for researchers interested in spoken language in educational contexts.