WX-2024Classroom Discourse Analysis

Critical thinking (CT) is an essential skill for the 21st century. Fostering CT in Chinese EFL reading classrooms, however, has been an under-explored topic. The present study set to explore the specific ways teachers’ scaffolding discourse featuring dialogic teaching can facilitate students’ CT in Chinese secondary EFL education. Drawing on discourse data from a high school reading classroom context, the study systematically focuses on teacher-student exchange patterns, teacher questioning discourse (Questioning), and teacher follow-up discourse moves (Extending) with a top-down approach from exchanges to moves. Adopting sociocultural discourse analysis, coding categories from a analytic framework informed by the dialogic teaching approach help us identify how teachers adjust their scaffolding discourse initially or contingently can be correlated with student discourse of critical thinking. This study adds to the extant classroom discourse literature informed by dialogic teaching and have pedagogical implications for teachers fostering students’ CT through varying their scaffolding discourse.