Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

514 Part 6: Language and Interaction
these studies are especially relevant to the themes of the current volume; I
review a selection of them below.
Interactional organization in the language classroom
Seedhouse (2004) provides a useful overview of what he describes as the
‘interactional architecture’ of the language classroom. Drawing on the
framework for the analysis of institutional talk developed by Drew and
Heritage (1992), Seedhouse argues that the language classroom consists of a
set of normatively organized activities to which participants can be seen to
orient. The idea here is that ‘classroom talk in fact subsumes a network of
inter-related speech exchange systems’ (Markee, 2002) and that these vary
with the ‘pedagogical focus’. So, for instance in ‘form-and-accuracy’ contexts,
the teacher typically maintains tight control of turn-taking by modeling
forms that students are expected to repeat as in the following case:
(21) Seedhouse, 2004: 102–103,
1 T: now I want everybody (.) to listen to me.
2 (1.8)
3 and when I say you are going to say after me,
4 (.) you are going to say what I say. (.) we can try.
5 I’ve got a lamp. a lamp. I’ve got a lamp.
6 LL: I’ve got a lamp.
7 T: (.) I’ve got a glass, a glass,
8 I’ve got a glass
9 LL: I’ve got a glass
10 T: I’ve got a vase, a vase I’ve got a vase
11 LL: I’ve got a vase.
Or by posing questions the answers of which involve the use of a standard
frame as in the following:
(22) Seedhouse, 2004: 102–103
1 T: I have. fi ne. I’ve got a trumpet.
2 >have you got a trumpet Anna?<
3 L15: ah er erm yes I have
4 T: I’ve got a radio. have you got a radio e:r (.) e:r Alvin?
5 L16: yes I have.
This contrasts with what Seedhouse (2004: 111) describes as ‘meaning
and fl uency’ contexts in which there is an emphasis on ‘maximizing the
opportunities for interaction’ and, as such, a turn-taking organization that
is markedly more like conversation. Rather than being tightly controlled by
the teacher, turn-taking is locally organized as in conversation with each
possible completion presenting an opportunity for speaker transition.