Using Conversation Analysis, this article explores the ways in which teasing is employed as an interactional tool to respond to learner-initiated departures in videotaped adult English as Foreign Language classrooms. The analysis focuses on the moments of classroom interaction where student contributions and behaviours initiate shifts from the…

Thinking together in primary classrooms has received much scholarly attention in recent years, with a focus on educational dialogue at the forefront of studies concerned with identifying what constitutes effective language for learning. Whilst the expression of explicit reasoning is often discussed, less attention has been given to the role that…

Grammar competition has been proposed as a model for second language (L2) acquisition. Variational Learning provides a framework within which to investigate the idea of grammar competition as the model requires a marriage of quantitative properties of the input with Universal Grammar. A diachronic variational model of grammar competition is…

Science education in the Arab world is conducted in various multilingual contexts. When science is taught in Arabic, diglossia -- the coexistence of the formal language of literacy alongside a local spoken variety -- constitutes a multilingual setting the pedagogical implications of which need to be understood. This study compares teacher--student…

Many ESL instructors are generally in agreement with the belief that it is essential that students should be assisted in developing critical thinking skills while being engaged in their language learning process, especially those learning the target language at a higher level (Stern, 1985; Dickinson, 1991; McKay, 2001; Terry, 2007; Van, 2009;…

Mathematical Argumentation skills have historically been overlooked in assessment, but the inclusion of Mathematical Argumentation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as one of the Standards of Mathematical Practice challenges assessment developers to assess this mathematical practice. Explanation and justification of one's own thinking to a…

In this article the authors report on the use of a scaffolding pedagogy (Gibbons, 2009), informed by systemic functional linguistics, to support the writing of English language learners in middle years curriculum learning. They focus on the work of one teacher and her English class across the first 18 months of a longitudinal design-based literacy…

Drawing on data from three English classrooms at two Chinese universities, this paper documents the turn-taking patterns that the teachers and students developed over time and explores how these patterns affected students' opportunities to participate in classroom discourse. The data were collected through observations, audio- and video-taping,…

Idioms occur frequently in classroom language. Students with literacy or language weaknesses are often challenged by idioms; therefore, the failure to comprehend idioms can impact academic performance. Four 7th-grade female students (mean age: 12 years, 6 months) participated in a multiple baseline single subject study during their general…

In this article, we examine the relationship between classroom talk, teacher-student roles and paradigms for literacy and learning in two ninth-grade English Language Arts classes. Our goal was to understand how these roles and practices socialized students into norms for academic language and literacy as they read and wrote poetry in preparation…

The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns of linguistic communication in learning and teaching science and to find out how the formation of each pattern was related with the classroom, particularly in Korean middle school context. For this, we observed science classes in three middle schools in Seoul and collected data during lessons…

Using an exploratory case study approach, the language use of five bilingual special education teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) with disabilities was examined. Audio tapes, classroom observations, and teacher interviews yielded data on the language used by the bilingual teachers. Data revealed information on the frequency of the use of…

For this article we aimed to understand the emergence of English as a second language for a newly immigrated Mexican student, a native speaker of Spanish, enrolled in a mainstream kindergarten classroom, who was undergoing the "silent period" (Krashen, 1981). Applying ecological approaches that emphasize learners in relationship with their…

Studies on classroom interaction have typically focused on relationships between turn-taking patterns and some larger unit of analysis of varying length and nature. However, two questions still left unanswered are how teachers talk differently from students in general and how linguistic variation between two participants might relate to…

A METHODOLOGY WAS DEVELOPED TO DESCRIBE THE LANGUAGE OF THE CLASSROOM BY CONSIDERING--(1) PEDAGOGICAL MOVES OF STRUCTURING, SOLICITING, RESPONDING, AND REACTING, (2) SUBSTANTIVE MEANINGS, (3) SUBSTANTIVE-LOGICAL MEANINGS, (4) INSTRUCTIONAL MEANINGS, AND (5) INSTRUCTIONAL-LOGICAL MEANINGS. A PROCEDURE WAS ALSO DEVELOPED FOR CHARACTERIZING THE…