Material artifacts play an important role in many learning environments. Such artifacts can include sketches, manipulatives, 3D models, toys and games, or the scrap materials found in makerspaces. Some theorists have argued that material artifacts, even though they do not move or talk, should be considered to have autonomous agency and to interact…

This report details a literacy affordance framework for describing and connecting the ways in which teachers focus their students on the syntactic structures of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in mathematics. This framework is intended to serve as a critical access point for connecting and moving broader research in secondary mathematics…

Few studies investigate how teacher discourse moves relate to subsequent student discourse moves in real-time small-group reading instruction with multilingual learners (MLLs). Grounded in sociocultural theory and classroom discourse research, this study examines how fourth-grade MLLs engage in reasoning discourse during text-based discussions. We…

This study begins by connecting semantic elaboration with conceptual understanding and syntactic elaboration with procedural understanding in the context of fractions. Through case studies and discourse analysis, the work and communication of students in fourth through sixth grade is analyzed to determine the extent of their semantic and syntactic…

This study used a dynamic approach to explore bidirectional sequential relations between the real-time language use of teachers and students in naturalistic early elementary science lessons. It also compared experienced teachers (n = 22) with novice teachers (n = 8) with respect to such relations. Verbal interactions were transcribed and coded at…

This research examines students' use of African American English (AAE) in classrooms with varying levels of procedural and substantive engagement. In this study, classroom context is examined for type of engagement, turn length, and teacher response to student AAE use. Student AAE use is analyzed by ethnicity, gender, and teacher, and by features…

This study aims to examine the relationship between bilingual experience and children's development of morphological and morpho-syntactic awareness. To capture both universal and language-specific bilingual effects, the study included four groups of participants: English-speaking children from a general education programme, Spanish-speaking and…

We consider what it means to be a dialogic teacher as characterized by Paulo Freire and Robin Alexander, and utilizing discourse analysis, we explicate how one elementary teacher's talk reflects these characteristics. We provide context for and analysis of a seven-minute discussion selected as a cumulative achievement the focal nine-year-olds are…

Classroom research has largely focused on an "instructional discourse" in local classroom contexts where teachers and students interact about subject knowledge. Few studies have been conducted, however, to examine "regulative discourse", which is the precondition for the transmission of subject knowledge. In this article,…

Studies of language issues in postcolonial Hong Kong are abundant. While the majority is concerned with the language policy and medium of instruction, there seems to be insufficient discussion on the subject matter of our English lessons, which, this paper argues, are ideology-ridden. Following the tradition of critical discourse analysis and…

Describes the dynamics of problem solving through spoken discourse in one-to-one tutoring of second-language writing in order to determine whether these processes vary with either instructional approach or language used. Tutors' and students' cooperative efforts to solve problems in the students' draft compositions focused primarily on local…

A study was conducted at an American university to collect data on how native English-speaking students asked questions in class. The data were analyzed for use of syntactic forms, formulaic expressions or prefatory comments, terms of address, functions fulfilled by the questions, and politeness markers. The results were then compared with the…