miss shabhan assignment

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)


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:


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.


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.


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..


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.


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:


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


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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 (.)


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


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


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


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

miss shabhan assignment

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