Abstract #1718

Abstract: Classroom dialogue and oracy as L1-topic

Tina Höegh, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark

A teacher has different choices as to how to distribute the classroom dialogue and make the school subject and the academic language in the school subject clear to the students. Research since the 1970s (Barnes 1976) have strived to describe how the classroom dialogue can be dialogical, with explorative talk between the students and with less teacher centered (Sulzer 2015) IRE-triadic form: Initiative (teacher asks a question), Response (student), and Evaluation of the response (teacher). This is a criticized and well-debated triadic pattern (Appleby et al. 2003; Cazden 2001).
Despite a lot of development work (Lyle 2008; Horowitz 2007) the IRE and dialogue patterns alike are still very deep-rooted when a class examines texts and material with their teacher (Reznitskaya 2012). Why is the IRE-form so ingrained in the classroom’s oral settings? What is its contributions since its strong survival and despite many teachers’ intention to make explorative, dialogic teaching instead?
This paper presents a case study: An L1-subject teacher in upper secondary school and his way through IRE-patterned talk to build knowledge and subject specific language with the students. The theme of this particular L1-lesson is face to face interaction in everyday life, and the teacher introduces to Erwing Goffman’s term facework and show it in action by making a short performance with one of the students, unprepared for the student, but as an illustrative situation to talk about with the class. In my presentation I’ll discus the way this teacher – by the form of the dialogue, his illustrative performance, his use of the room and space, and his timing – displays the disciplinary path for the students to follow as a subject specific path: How can we speak about speech and “where” is the topic in oral L1?
The case is from a larger research project to describe and compare oral academic language in different school subjects. The method is observation, video- and sound-recordings of classroom dialogue, student group-dialogue, and interviews with teachers and students. The analysis is being carried out through micro studies and ad hoc-transcriptions (Höegh 2009; in press a and b).

Keywords: Oracy, classrooms dialogue, subject specific language, oracy as topic in L1.

References:
Applebee, A. N., Langer, J. A., Nystrand, M. & Gamoran, A. (2003). Discussion-Based Approaches to Developing Understanding: Classroom Instruction and Student Performance in Middle and High School English. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 685-730.
Barnes, J.R. (1976) From Communication to Curriculum. Hamondsworth: Penguin.
Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom Discourse. The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH.: Heinemann.
Horowitz, R. (ed.) (2007). Talking Texts: How Speech and writing Interact in School Learning. New York: Routledge.
Höegh, T. (2009). Poetisk pædagogik: sprogrytme og mundtlig fremførelse som litterær fortolkning: forslag til ny tekstteori og til pædagogisk refleksion (ph.d.-afhandling). Köbenhavn: Köbenhavns Universitet.
Höegh, T. (in press a) Methodological Issues in Analysing Human Communication: The Complexities of Multimodality. In Creativity and Continuity – Perspectives on the Dynamics of Language Conventionalisation. Dorthe Duncker & Bettina Perregaard (Eds.). Copenhagen: U Press. Page 81-126.
Höegh, T. (in press b) Observation and Analysis Through Textmaking. in Creativity and Continuity – Perspectives on the Dynamics of Language Conventionalisation. Dorthe Duncker & Bettina Perregaard (Eds.). Copenhagen: U Press. Page 329-352
Lyle, S. (2008). Dialogic Teaching: Discussing Theoretical Contexts and Reviewing Evidence from Classroom Practice. Language & Education: An International Journal, 22(3), 222-240.
Reznitskaya, A. (2012). Dialogic teaching: Rethinking Language Use During Literature Discussions. The Reading Teacher, 65(7), 446–456.
Sulzer, M.A. (2015) Exploring Dialogic teaching with middle and secondary English language art teachers: a reflexive phenomenology. PhD thesis, University of Iowa: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1912 (visited Oct. 29, 2016)