Related Data for Thesis/Dissertation: Meaning, understanding and dialogic relationships in an English language lesson: A Bakhtinian analysis

In this study, I focus on looking at the meaning in classroom talk through the prism of dialogue, specifically Bakhtinian dialogue, at how it informs meaning and at how these two concepts of meaning and dialogue interact in an educational context. There are various approaches to understanding and unpacking meaning, and how meaning relates to language and speech. There are also different approaches to understanding and unpacking dialogue in teaching and learning (e.g., Alexander, 2001; Burbules, 1993; Skidmore, 2000; Wells, 1999). Dialogue is central to education because it is viewed as a verbal way to exchange thoughts and alternative points, arguments or disputable issues in a form of questioning or critiquing to arrive at an understanding of the discussed matter. In seeing dialogue as such, educators maintain the value of dialogic exchanges as a useful knowledge inquiry tool to materialize student thinking processes. Thus, dialogue has been perceived as a discourse pattern which might best enhance learning in classrooms (Mercer & Littleton, 2007; Skidmore & Murakami, 2016; Walsh, 2006).