Discourse and interaction in the classroom: research traditions and perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines some of the major research traditions that have produced models and tools for observing communicative processes in educational contexts, from studies of teacher behaviour to studies of the classroom as a communicative system in which relationships and learning are socially constructed and discursively realised by participants in the interaction. The paper does not attempt to summarise a rich and complex history, but poses some methodological questions that may be of interest to those concerned with problems of educational research and professional improvement that can be addressed through the observation of teacher-student interaction and, in particular, through the use of category systems for the close analysis of the discourse they actually produce, with particular reference to recent developments in educational research on dialogic teaching and learning.