Oracy in Year one: A blind spot in Norwegian language and literacy education?
Submitted by:
Atle Skaftun
Abstract:
Oral communication is a main area in the Norwegian L1 subject, alongside written communication and content area knowledge (language, literature and culture), and the competence aims after Year 2 all point towards key aspects of talk and conversation. Nevertheless, oral communication in general (and even more so oracy conceived of as a more specific approach to oral language as a primary system of thinking tools (Vygotskij, 1986; Mercer, 2000)) has received little attention compared to reading and literacy over the last ten years. More astonishing is it that oracy in primary school rarely is considered in conjunction with the established and well-developed traditions for rich linguistic environments in Kindergarten, where explorative conversations and dialogic reading are viewed as important tools.
The paper is based on observations of L1 lessons in 6 Year one classrooms, preparing the ground for a more in-depth video supported fieldwork in the same six classrooms in the spring semester 2018, i.e. in Year 2. The analyses of the Year 1 data identify how the lessons are organized (time spent in plenary, individual work, station work, and group work), before focusing on student talk within these organizational frames making use of Segal and Lefstein’s (2015) four-level model for understanding dialogic qualities: 1) the opportunity to speak; 2) speaking one’s mind; 3) speaking on one’s own terms; and finally, 4) being acknowledged by others. The research question is: What opportunities for student talk is provided in Year one of the L1 subject?
Despite clear support of the effect of dialogical education in school (Clarke et al., 2016), the data reported in this paper suggest a paradoxical contrast between Kindergarten oracy practices and what seems to be a broadly shared understanding of Year one as directed towards silencing the students, or at least establishing the well-known IRE structure of classroom discourse (Mehan, 1979).
References
Clarke, S.N., Resnick, L.B., Penstein Rosé, C., Corno, L. & Anderman, E.M. (2016). Dialogic instruction: a new frontier. Handbook of educational psychology, 3. utg. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp 278-388.
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: social organization in the classroom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Mercer, N. (2000). Words and minds: how we use language to think together. London: Routledge.
Segal, A., & Lefstein, A. (2016). Exuberant voiceless participation: An unintended consequence of dialogic sensibilities? L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 16, 1–19.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. (A. Kozulin, Ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.