Towards dialogue: A linguistic ethnographic study of classroom interaction and change

Dialogue has been shown to be an effective means for the development of pupil learning, critical thinking and reading comprehension. But although recent policies have promoted dialogic teaching, teacher-pupil interaction in English primary classrooms remains largely unchanged. Why is classroom interaction so difficult to change? How might dialogic pedagogy be fostered and sustained?Promising answers to these questions may be found in ideas and methods developed in linguistic anthropology regarding how "interactional genres" shape the way people interact with one another. This study aims to examine this idea through the study of classroom practice.  In particular, the research will investigate:the role of interactional genres in classroom change processes;the relationship between teachers' sensitivity to interactional dynamics and their professional practice; andthe explanatory power of interactional genres as a unit of analysis for making sense of what happens in classrooms.The research will study change processes associated with teacher professional development designed to encourage and support dialogic teaching and learning of reading comprehension. Data collection will include video and audio recordings of professional development workshops and literacy lessons, field notes, collection of artefacts, and interviews. Data analysis will integrate linguistic ethnographic tools and computer-assisted discourse analysis.

对话已被证明是促进学生学习、批判性思维和阅读理解能力发展的有效手段。尽管近年来的政策推动了对话式教学，但英国小学课堂中的师生互动模式仍基本未变。为何课堂互动如此难以改变？对话式教学法应如何培育与维系？这些问题的潜在答案，或许可从语言人类学领域发展出的理念与方法中探寻——该领域关注“互动体裁（interactional genres）”如何塑造人与人之间的互动方式。本研究旨在通过课堂实践研究来验证这一理念。具体而言，本研究将探究：互动体裁在课堂变革过程中的作用；教师对互动动态的敏感度与其专业实践之间的关系；以及互动体裁作为分析单元，对解读课堂事件的解释力。本研究将考察与教师专业发展相关的变革过程——这些发展旨在鼓励并支持对话式教学及阅读理解学习。数据收集将包括专业发展工作坊与读写课的音视频记录、实地笔记、实物收集及访谈。数据分析将整合语言人类学工具与计算机辅助话语分析技术。