Newcastle University

As the only university recognised research centre within ECLS, and with numerous researchers and lecturers involved, CfLaT’s research interests are diverse in content and context, though linked by over-arching themes. One such developing theme is that of ‘Classroom Discourse’, which has been a research interest of one CfLaT member (Steve Walsh) for many years. Steve’s work has focused on ways of describing and analyzing classroom interaction with a view to helping teachers become more aware of the complex relationship between language, interaction and learning.

The main interest in classroom discourse stems from an ongoing need to encourage teachers to make better use of their language and communication skills. The interactive choices made by teachers have a strong impact on the type of learning which takes place. For example, teachers can easily restrict or facilitate learning opportunities by their choice of questioning strategy.

 

Investigating Classroom Discourse

Steve’s recent research monograph, Investigating Classroom Discourse was published in 2006 by Routledge and offers a framework for analysing classroom language, particularly in a TESOL context. A key element of this work is the extent to which language teachers’ interactional awareness can be enhanced through the use of the framework proposed in the book (SETT: self-evaluation of teacher talk), reflective practices and dialogue. The intention now is to refine and extend this work into other areas of the curriculum (see below). The earliest part of this work involved English language teachers working with international students. The study was in three parts:

(a) descriptive, in which recordings of classroom interaction were analysed to better understand teaching and learning processes;
(b) formative, where teachers worked with the researcher to evaluate and improve their ‘teacher talk’ using a collaboratively designed framework;
(c) evaluative, where we looked at the extent to which changes had been made in teachers’ use of language and the ways in which these changes helped learners.

The feedback was very positive and all teachers felt that their language use and classroom communication skills improved as a result of taking part in this project. The aim now is to replicate this study in key curriculum subjects such as maths, English and Science with a view to improving secondary school teachers’ interactional awareness.

Before coming to Newcastle University, Steve was involved in a large research project (with a grant totalling £1.2m) at Queen’s University Belfast which looked at inter-professional education. In this project, which was largely interdisciplinary, Steve worked with colleagues from the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing to promote inter-professional education by considering the role of professional discourse in class- and work-based learning environments. Again, in this project, the focus was on the ways in which language is used in institutional settings to achieve common goals. Promoting awareness and encouraging people to use a language which is more inclusive were key elements of this project.

In another, ongoing project, Steve is working with a team of researchers from the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong to develop a fuller understanding of the role of language in third level teaching and learning and to characterise the ‘talk-in-interaction’ of university tutorials and seminars. This work will be of particular value to both local and international students and their tutors since it will offer a more sophisticated description of spoken academic discourse and help students gain the speaking strategies they need to play a more active role in the kind of academic debate typified in seminars and tutorials.

Up until recently, Steve was involved in an EU-funded project totalling 160,000 euro with six European partners looking at best practice in the teaching and learning of minority languages. This project, called CRAMLAP (Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Project) is directed at university language teachers across Europe and the project web-site is open to this constituency for consultation and discussion. Some of the findings from this project will have direct relevance to language teachers working in secondary schools and to teachers working with children whose first language is not English.

One other project which looks at language in classrooms is a comparative study involving researchers from Northern Ireland and Canada. This British Academy funded study compares the attitudes and approaches to critical reflective practice (CRP) of colleagues engaged in initial teacher education. It is expected that the outputs from this project will have ramifications for the ways in which teachers in the early stages of professional development undertake critical reflection on their classroom practices. One of the findings of this project was that both tutors and student-teachers show some awareness of what CRP is, but have little idea about ways of promoting it. One of the recommendations from this work is that all practitioners need some training in CRP; in particular, practitioners need tools, a metalanguage and dialogue in order to develop reflective practices.

Future research plans include an application for significant research funding (ESRC or similar) to facilitate understanding of the relationship between teacher language and learning opportunities in secondary classrooms. Recent research has indicated that many primary and secondary teachers do not have adequate skills to manage interaction so that learning opportunities are maximised. This study would address these concerns and consider ways of incorporating an ‘interactional awareness’ strand in initial teacher education programmes. This work would entail working very closely with teachers, using their own classroom data to investigate current practices, develop new ways of using language and evaluating the process to enhance awareness.

Steve also intends to continue working on the language used in tutorials and seminars and to commence a new project which will consider how doctor-patient interaction might be improved in order to improve case-history taking and reduce the number of mis-diagnoses. If you would like to contact Steve about any aspect of this work, please email Steve.

Related publications

O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M. and Walsh, S. (2008) ‘…post-colonialism, multi-culturalism, structuralism, feminism, post-modernism and so on so forth’ – vague language in academic discourse, a comparative analysis of form, function and context’, in R. Reppen and A. Adel (eds) Exploring Discourse through Corpora. Studies in Corpus Linguistics, Amsterdam, John Benjamins.

Walsh, S. and O’Keeffe, A. (2007), ‘Applying CA to a modes analysis of third-level spoken academic discourse’, in H. Boyles & P. Seedhouse (eds), Conversation Analysis in Languages for Specific Purposes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Walsh, S. and O’Keeffe, A. (2007) Language Awareness, Special Edition: Corpus-based Approaches.

Walsh, S. (2006) Investigating Classroom Discourse. London: Routledge.

Walsh, S. (2006). 'Learning to talk or talking to learn in the EFL classroom'. In A. Gallagher and M. O’ Laoire (eds.) Language Education in Ireland: current practice and future needs. National University of Ireland Maynooth: Irish Association of Applied Linguistics (IRAAL).

Walsh, S. (2006) ‘Talking the talk of the TESOL Classroom’, English Language Teaching Journal, vol 60, pp 133-141.

Walsh, S. (2005) ‘Analyzing classroom discourse: a variable approach’ in R. Hughes (ed.), Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics: Challenges for Theory and Practice. London, Palgrave-MacMillan.

Walsh, S. (2003) ‘Developing interactional awareness in the second language classroom’. Language Awareness, vol 12, pp124-142.

McCarthy, M. and Walsh, S. (2003). 'Discourse'. In D, Nunan (ed.) Practical English Language Teaching, McGraw-Hill.

Walsh, S. (2002). ‘SETT: self-evaluation of teacher talk. A reflective approach’. IATEFL Research SIG Newsletter. International Association of Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

Walsh, S. (2002) 'Construction or Obstruction: Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in the EFL Classroom'. Language Teaching Research, vol 6, pp 1-23.

Walsh, S. (2001). 'QTT vs TTT; Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width'. International House Journal of Education, 11.