Classroom Discourse Analysis in Language Teaching

Abstract：This paper begins with a brief introduction of discourse analysis, and then it discusses two aspects of traditional classroom teaching discourse: the I-R-F sequence and turn-taking. The emphases of the paper lay on how language teachers can use classroom discourse analysis to do research and create learning environment, and how language learners can use it to achieve language proficiency and cultural competence.

Key words：discourse analysis, classroom, teachers, learners

中图分类号： H319 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1672-1578（2012)05-0001-02

1 Introduction

Discourse analysis is a new science. It absorbs the research products of some subjects including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology, sociology and literature. Gradually, it becomes a specific subject which studies language use in communication. Basic framework for the study of discourse contains: language as system and activity, language use with purpose and function, and language in situation. It involves looking at both language form and language functions and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts.

2 Language discourse of traditional classroom

A discourse analysis of written texts might include a study of topic development and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices, opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative structure.One influential approach to the study of spoken discourse is developed at the University of Birmingham. The researchers initially concerned themselves with the structure of discourse in school classroom. Classroom discourse refers to the language that teachers and students use to communicate with each other in the classroom. Talking, or conversation, is the medium through which most teaching takes place, so the study of classroom discourse is the study of the process of face-to-face classroom teaching.

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) found that the language of traditional native-speaker school classrooms is a rigid pattern, where teachers and pupils speak according to the very fixed perceptions of their roles and where the talk could be seen to conform to highly structured sequences. According to them, the following is the typical classroom discourse sequences:

T: W hat’s the capital of France? (Initiation)

S: Paris. (Response)

T: Yes, Paris. That’s right. (Feedback)

These three moves—the teacher’s initiation, the student’s response and the teacher’s feedback—consists of an exchange, which is known as IRF. Sinclair and Coulthard(1975) put forward that in teacher-student interactions, the response part of the exchange was typically followed by a third move on the teacher’s part. This move consisted of an evaluative commentary on the student’s response, which they termed as feedback. The feedback move is a function of the teacher’s power to control language since it signals what is to be viewed as relevant knowledge within the discourse. The I-R-F sequence has been widely accepted by the researchers as a useful aspect to analyze classroom discourse. Asking questions is one of the interactive features of teacher-talk in language classroom. Questioning serves as the principal way in which the teacher maintains control over the classroom discourse and keeps students participating in the discourse. Asking questions has attracted considerable attention from researchers of language classroom teaching.