Using Discourse Analysis to Improve Classroom Interaction

by Lesley A. Rex, Laura Schiller

This accessible 'how to' text is about classroom interaction – how to study it and how to use that knowledge to improve teaching and learning. Actually showing what critical, constructionist, sociocultural perspectives on teaching, learning, and schooling are and what they can do, it makes discourse analysis understandable and useful to teachers and other nonlinguists. Using Discourse Analysis to Improve Classroom Proceeding from simple illustrations to more complex layering of analytical concepts, short segments of talk, transcribed to highlight important points, are used to explain and illustrate the concepts. By the time readers get to the complicated issues addressed in this text they are ready to deal with some of teaching’s toughest challenges, and have the tools to build positive relationships among their students so that all can participate equally in the classroom.

Genres: Education

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another proof of how DA can be done in endless ways. I'd call this 'contextual interaction analysis', that often comes closer to conversation analysis than DA (e.g Fairclough), but the analysis is solid and engaging with a fresh critical edge. Despite being firmly anchored in the American school experience, the book can be useful to people in other contexts as well.