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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
INTRODUCTION:
The term 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. Discourse is defined as “the language in use” (Cook,
1989:6) and discourse analysis is concerned with the “the analysis of language in use” (Brown
and Yule’1983:1) In each elicitation act constitutes a sequence made up of initiation-response-
evaluation, where teacher-student-teacher seem to participate in that determined order.
The earliest systematic study of classroom discourse was reported in 1910 and used
stenographers to make a continuous record of teacher and student talk in high school classrooms.
The first use of audiotape recorders in classrooms was reported in the 1930s, and during the
1960s there was a rapid growth in the number of studies based on analysis of transcripts of
classroom discourse. In 1973, Barak Rosen shine and Norma Furst described seventy-six
different published systems for analyzing classroom discourse.
Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches
to analyzing written, spoken or signed language use. Classroom discourse analysis is an
aspect of classroom process research, which is one way for teachers to monitor both the
quantity and quality of students output. Nunan has pointed that “If we want to enrich our
understanding of language learning and teaching, we need to spend time looking in
classroom” (Nunan, 1989:76)
“It is the teachers responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting for communication and
communicative activities” (Jack C.Richards and Theodore S.Rodgers.2000:78)
The analysis of classroom discourse is of value to teachers wanting to understand the dynamics
of classroom communication, to discover “whether there is a Proper equilibrium or an imbalance
between real communication and teacher talk.” (McCarthy 1991:18)
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
Some of the interactional features of classroom discourse are direct repair, content feedback,
extended wait-time, referential questions,scaffolding,seeking clarification, confirmation checks,
extended learner turn, teacher echo, teacher interruptions, extended teacher turn, turn completion,
display questions, form- focused feedback etc.
The features that I am going to describe in the transcribed data are scaffolding, teacher echo
and confirmation checks before I move on to the data analysis I would like to discuss about the
three features of classroom discourse that I observed in the classroom.
Scaffolding:
The term scaffolding was originally defined by Lev Vygotsky. According to him scaffolding can
be defined as a teaching strategy in which the teacher provides individualized support to
facilitate the student's development. With the help of the teacher, the student will be able to gain
new skills and build on prior knowledge.
Scaffolding is usually conceptualized in terms of informational or coordinative supportive
behaviors that one or more person engages in for the benefit of another, usually an infant or
child. The function that these supportive behaviors serve, however, is generally left at a fairly
intuitive level of under-standing, without much of an explicit model. The intuition is basically
that scaffolding by others allows the child to accomplish tasks that he or she might otherwise be
unable to accomplish (Bruner, 1975; Fischer & Laze son, 1984; Sroufe & Cooper, 1988).
Reformulation:
Rephrasing a learner’s contribution.
Extension:
Extending a learner’s contribution.
Modeling:
Correcting a learner’s contribution.
Confirmation checks:
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
Making sure that teacher has correctly understood learner’s contribution. Teachers also modify
form and content of their elicitations to make them more comprehensible to their students. This
can be done through confirmation checks. The origin of the use of this term can be found in
Kearsley's (1976) analysis of questions in spoken discourse. He elaborates taxonomy of question
functions, including echoic questions, which demand the repetition of an utterance or the
confirmation that the intention and meaning of an utterance has been correctly interpreted.
In confirmation checks the teachers checks whether the students have correctly grasped the
message sent by the interlocutor or not. Usually the teacher repeats a word or the sentence which
the student has said to verify. This is a good way to check to what extent the students are
following the interactive exchange and providing coherent responses. Students seem to use this
type of elicitation much more frequently than teachers (Ramiro,2002)
Teacher echo:
Teacher echo is used during the discourse when the teacher repeats the learner’s contribution and
repeats the previous utterance by the student.
About the data:
The data was obtained by recording an English language lesson of class 2 for 15 minutes by
using a digital sound recorder. The teacher was reading a story to the class while the data was
recorded. The strength of the class was 25. Their teacher had an experience of about 5 years.
Procedure:
First the data was transcribed and then the three features mentioned earlier were analyzed. For
scaffolding, blue highlighter was used, for confirmation checks green highlighter was used and
too lastly, to mark teacher echo yellow color was used. The key along with the frequency is
mentioned at the end of the transcribed data provided in the appendix.
Data Analysis:
Now we will be analyzing the transcribed data in the light of scaffolding (extension,
reformulation, modelling), teacher echo and confirmation checks.
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
Scaffolding:
In this section we are going to analyze one of the most important features of discourse
scaffolding. It is used by the teachers for the effective use of language and to guide them.
Extension:
Example 1:
17.S: and he teases the man and that man wanted to get rid of that rooster.
18.T: no, yes then…Razim is saying the man was mean because the rooster teased
him a lot and he =really wanted to punish him.
In this example the student’s response is not very clear, so the teacher has used extension in
response to make it clear for all the students that the man was mean because the rooster teased
him a lot.
Example 2:
20.S: He was mean because::. The man was very .don’t like the animals.
21.T: Oh this is…Ravine says that he was mean because he doesn’t like the
animals. He doesn’t like the (.) he don’t like the animals so he really wants to
cook the rooster and he wants to eat it..
In this example the student responded in a broken sentence and the sentence was also
grammatically incorrect, so the teacher used both reformulation and extension in his response.
Example 3:
32.S: A :: the rooster was hiding because the man was deciding to eat him.
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
33.T: Yes . the rooster was trying to escape because he knew that mean man was
going to cook me and he has taken this decision that he is going to cook me and
he is going to eat me so he thought that his life is in danger so he really wants to
escape from that. OK and the next question is who was inside the cottage.
In this the teacher is correcting the student’s response by using extension to clarify all the
students in the class.
Reformulation:
Example 1:
87: S: when they looked inside the cottage they saw lots of food and suddenly
they bumped into the mirror and they went into the house
88:T: it was not the mirror it was the::: window..
89:S: glass
90T: it was a glass.. They bumped inside the glass and they got into the cottage
(.)ok
91T why did they enter the cottage students [noise]
In this example the teacher is using modelling to correct the students response and later
she reformulated the entire response of the student to develop a better understanding .In
this case two features are overlapping.
Example 2:
103.S: they had a long sleep
104.T: and they slept for a long time and the end of the story..
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
In this example the teacher is rephrasing the student response by saying that they slept for a
long time.
Example 3:
117.S: he put in that cats eyes the
118.T: he thought that they are burning↑… burning coals so he want to.. What did
he try to do?
In this example the teacher the teacher is reformulating student’s response.
Modelling:
Example 1:
93.S: they were trying to eat to eat. The food (.)
94.T: they wanted to eat the food
In this scenario the teacher is modelling the student’s response by correcting the sentence
construction by saying that they wanted to eat the food.
Example 2:
104. T.Who will describe the end? Hadi
105. S: they saw the cat
106. T: no listen all the animals ate a good food and they went to sleep for long.
In this case the teacher asked the ending of the story from the students but the students could
not give the right answer so she modeled the sentence by saying that all the animals ate food and
they went to sleep for long.
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
Confirmation checks:
Example 1:
13. S: Because he was hungry
14. T: The man was hungry that’s why he was mean?
This example shows that the teacher asked the student that why the man was hungry and in
response to the students reply she made a confirmation check to make sure that she has correctly
understood the students response.
Example 2:
43.S: The cat was inside
44.T: The cat was inside?
In this example the teacher is confirming the student’s response.
Teacher echo:
Example 1:
139.S: and then robbers never came in the house.
140.T: robbers never came back again to that house. And what about the animals
(.) they…
This scenario demonstrates the example of teacher echo by repeating the student’s utterance.
Example 2:
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
125. S: it jumped on its face and scratched it
126. T: exactly (.) he jumped on his face and he scratched his face.
In this case the teacher is repeating the learner’s contribution to make it clear for the entire
student’s.
Example 3:
140. S: they lived there forever
141. T” excellent they lived there for ever…
In this last example the student said they lived there forever and teacher responded by
repeating learner’s contribution
This table shows an overall view of the discourse analysis for teacher echo, scaffolding and
confirmation checks as they occurred in the transcribed data.
Table:
Interactional
feature
scaffolding Confirmation
checks
Teacher echo
extension reformulation modelling
Occurrence 8 4 2 6 5
Conclusion:
In this analysis three of very important classroom discourse features were analyzed with
reference to the data collected from the classroom observation. These features play a vital role in
any classroom discourse and as shown in our analysis the teacher used these features to develop
a better understanding in the students. The most used feature in this data is extension which is
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
subcategory of scaffolding. The teacher was telling a story and the children were giving in
complete answers so with the help of extension the teacher was able to recall the complete story .
References.
Alpert, Bracha R. 1987. "Active, Silent, and Controlled Discussions: Explaining Variations in Classroom Conversation." Teaching and Teacher Education 3 (1):29 - 40.
Bruner, J. S. 1975. The ontogenesis of speech acts. Journal of Child Language 2, 1-19.
W. Fischer and Arlyne Lazerson. Human Development: From Conception Through Adolescence. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman,1984, 747 pp.
Sroufe, L. A., & Cooper, R. G. (1988). Child development: Its nature and course. New York:
Random House (Alfred Knopf).
KEARSLEY, G. P. (1976). "Questions and question asking in verbal discourse:
A cross-disciplinary review", Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 5, 4,p p. 355-375
RAMIRO, S. S. ( 2002). THE SIGNEFICANCE OF CERTAIN PROSODIC FEATURES. Revista de Filología y su Didáctica , 475-490.
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
Appendix
Transcription of the recorded data
1. S: Teacher you’ll give us this book
2. T:You liked the story
3. S: Yes
4. T: The story is about 3 little a 3 or 4 animals
5. (.)What were those animals were trying to do?
6. S: eat the food
7. T: don’t give me a one word answer. I want you to give me the answer in full sentence.
8. The first question is why you think the man was so mean. Why do you think?
9. S: What is mean
10. T: What do you think? Ok know in the story the man was very mean. He wants a to you
know a get =the rooster in a
11. S:[noise]
12. T: pot and he wants to cook him and he wants to eat him right? why do you think the man
was so =mean
13. S: Because he was hungry
14. T: The man was hungry that’s why he was mean?
15. S: The rooster wants to.. the rooster wants to..every time the rooster speak he tease the man
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
16. T:OK
17. S: and he teases the man and that man wanted to get rid of that rooster.
18. T: no, yes then…Razim is saying the man was mean because the rooster teased him a lot and
he =really wanted to punish him.
19. T: You want to say that he wanted to punish him. Why do you think that he was mean? Yes
Ra::a Raveen
20. S: He was mean because::. The man was very .don’t like the animals.
21. T: Oh this is…Raveen says that he was mean because he doesn’t like the animals. He doesn’t
like the (.) he don’t like the animals so he really wants to cook the rooster and he wants to eat
it..
22. S:Teacher noise
23. S: teacher why then he bought the animals.
24. T:They were
25. S: If he didn’t like the animals why did he buy?
26. T: They were these animals who were living near by.
27. They were not his own animals or didn’t buy them from some where. They were not the pet.
They were not the pet.
28. T: So why do you think he was mean.Haadi (.) Any answer from your side. Any other.. Who
will answer me... Raveen… Raveen was saying that he was mean because he didn’t love the
animals. He didn’t like the animals
29. T OK the next question is why you think the rooster was trying to escape. He was trying to
hide, why do you think?
30. S: I :
31. T: Not always Raveen Anyone Yes Yes Zafar
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
32. S: A :: the rooster was hiding because the man was deciding to eat him.
33. T: Yes . the rooster was trying to escape because he knew that mean man was going to cook
me and he has taken this decision that he is going to cook me and he is going to eat me so he
thought that his life is in danger so he really wants to escape from that. OK and the next
question is who was inside the cottage.
34. No not this group. Someone a Yes Basil.. Who was inside the cottage?
35. Yes Basil who was inside the cottage. Who was inside the cottage?
36. S: It was the rooster
37. T: No the rooster was not. Raven
38. S: It was the
39. T: no listen
40. S[the donkey]
41. T: When all the animals saw from the window what was the scene. Who was inside at that
time?
42. S: The robber was inside
43. S: The cat was inside
44. T: The cat was inside?
45. S; No robber
46. T: Yes Abdullah
47. S: Robber was inside
48. T: Yes .Now give me complete answer.
49. S: robber was inside the house
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
50. T: The robbers were? S[inside the house]
51. S: Teacher it can be one more answer that the robber
52. S: was small
53. S: the robber the robber in the house and having a picnic
54. T: the robber was in the house and they were having?
55. Do you think the robbers were having a picnic in the house
56. S:[no]
57. T: listen why the robbers were robber are in the house..For what do you think?
58. S: for stealing [noise]
59. T: excuse me Abdullah:: take turns to speak
60. S:a :::they were eating the food
61. T: they were eating the food? Why no.. why do you think the robbers are in the house
62. : they were making a plan
63. T: they were making a plan in the house.. no Abdullah Khalid
64. S: they were trying to steal everything.
65. T: from the
66. S: who come to there,
67. T: you know this is a good answer
68. T: Why do the robbers come to others house? Why do you think?
69. T:Yousaf yes Yusuf s[because]
70. S: because the robbers e don’t
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
71. T: the robbers
72. S: The robber s a want to eat the cat]
73. T: the robbers want to eat the cat?
74. S: Yes
75. S: no … (noise)
S: the robbers want to eat the..
76. S: they want to eat the rooster
77. T: they don’t want to eat the rooster you know the robbers are… when the robbers come to
some body’s house they steal the things. or the goods which are ..
78. S: can I tell
79. T: yes
80. S: when the people are out side the robbers come from outside, they wan to steal the money
81. T: the next question is who was inside the cottage (.) you told me..ok
82. T: What did they do when they looked inside the cottage? Yes zafar
83. S: they looked inside the..
84. T: when they looked inside the cottage what did they do..Ok.. Yes you..
85. S: teacher
86. T: Razim
87. S: when they looked inside the cottage they saw lots of food and suddenly they bumped into
the mirror and they went into the house
88. T: it was not the mirror it was the::: window..
89. S: glass
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
90. T: it was a glass.. They bumped inside the glass and they got into the cottage (.)ok
91. T why did they enter the cottage students [noise]
92. T: raven what they were…raven↑ yes raven..
93. S: they were trying to eat to eat. The food (.)
94. T: they wanted to eat the food
88. S: no
89. T: or..
90. T: Taha↑.. tahaa
91. S[noise]
92. S: because they were.. they are hungry
93. T ok now how did they enjoy in the cottage
94. S:by eating
95. T: by eating the food and what happened next.. after eating the food what did they do
96. S: they had a long sleep
97. T: and they slept for a long time and the end of the story.. Who will describe the end?
hadi
98. S: they saw the cat
99. T: no listen all the animals ate a good food and they went to sleep for long.
100. T: then what did the robbers do
101. S: teacher they rolled over the cat and the cat was here and cat..
102. S: no they saw the shining light and (.)
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
103. T: thought…
104. S: he thought that I will:::
105. T: then he saw little:::
106. S: he will
107. T: small robber came inside the house and what happened↑ ..he saw the
108. S:[he]
109. T: cat size and
110. S: he put in that cats eyes the
111. T: he thought that they are burning↑… burning coals so he want to.. What did he
try to do?
112. Sara
113. T: burn the candle and how the cat reacted at that time:
114. S: he jumped on his face
115. T: yes mahnoor
116. S: and
117. T: yes mahnoor how did the cat react
118. S: it jumped on its face and scratched it
119. T: exactly(.) he jumped on his face and he scratched his face
120. S: and then the dog ran and bit the robber. On its leg
121. T: excellent Then the dog ran and he bit on his leg and.. and then he bumped into
the donkey
122. T: then he bumped into a donkey.. and then what happened
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
123. S: and then they planned to…..teacher and... to whom they went in the end
124. S[noise] teacher
125. T: who was in the end..
126. Yes musa
127. S: to whom the robbers went in the end
128. S Teacher we cannot listen
129. T: he though he thought that it was a big monster and then what was the end of
the story?
130. S: and then they became friends
131. T: and then no they did not become friends
132. T: and then what happened S: and then robbers never came in the house.
133. T: robbers never came back again to that house. And what about the animals (.)
they…
134. S: they lived there forever
135. T” excellent they lived there for ever…
141. S: that answer would be like this (.)that they were they were in the house because
they were hiding from that man who was going to eat the rooster
142. T: no they were not hiding.. they started living in the same house forever that was
the end of the story
143. S; that was not the end of the story.. that you were saying…a…aaa
145. S; teacher give is the book
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
145. s: you asked this question..Before that question that a. how did they have fun
because that question is left ..That question is left
146. T: ok fine now you tell me you liked the story or not..
148. S: yes
148. T: you like it
148. S; yes
148. T: why did you like it
148. S; because.. kits too funny
148. T: why did you like it?
148. S: if we want to see the
148. T: what is the thing that is funny.. what was so funny about the story(.) what part
of the story=you liked the most?Which part you liked the best..
149. S: that part
157. T: yes
157. S: that part.. where the cat climb on the:::
157. T: donkey
157. S: donkey and the: rooster climb on
157. T on the
157. S: <cat and they… they …. Bumped into the?
157. T: house.. yes that↑ was funny part
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Classroom Discourse Final Assignment
157. T: anyone else wants to give the answer
157. S: teacher I like the part that Razim said
157. T right.. Any one else.. Girls..???
157. T: ok.. well done thank you very much
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