International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
consequently, facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge (Barnes and Todd, 1995; Mercer, 1998, 1995).
Emphasis has been placed on the ‘dialogic’ nature of the interaction where the learner and a more
knowledgeable adult/peer actively attempt to interpret the meaning of each other’s words (Wells 1999) and the
teacher’s use of less controlled communicative strategies which allow pupils the freedom to explore ideas
(Brierly et al., 1992). But what do we mean when we talk about the promotion of talk in classroom? how are we
as teachers influencing talk in the classroom from home?
From home to school
By the time children arrive in school most are accomplished talkers. Immersed in a language-using
community, they will have participated in rich everyday conversations with many different people and have used
talk to communicate their needs and to make sense of the world around them. In everyday situations at home,
talk between parent and child is characterised by immediate interest and need and is in essence a shared
dialogue. For many children entering a class, one of the most difficult accomplishments is to make sense of
classroom talk. Being asked to reply to your name in the register, seeking permission to go to the toilet and
having to respond to various questions. Very quickly it appears, children grasp the subtle rules that govern talk
in the classroom. In the study by Mary Willes (1983) of young children entering reception class, it became
apparent that mastering the discourse patterns of the setting was an important requirement of fulfilling their role
as pupils. Indeed, even on their first day, Willes memorably describes children’s learning about the rules of
listening to a story. Increasingly in the last two decades there has been a greater awareness of the cultural capital
that children bring to school and the need to ensure that children have plenty of opportunities to talk with adults
and their peers. Classrooms are generally characterised as places where talk, both teacher and child-led, is
valued with a marked encouragement for children to explore ideas, speculate, analyse and criticise. However,
there is still plenty of evidence to suggest that there remains a marked inequality in the extent which different
children participate in classroom discussions. In a recent project by Myhill (2002) early observations of classes
suggested that it was the high achievers who were more likely to participate in whole class discussion than low
achievers and that girls were more likely to participate than boys. The off task behaviour and shouting out that
was characteristic of many boys and low achievers began in Year 2 and continued into Year 6. The other main
finding that came from this initial observation was that there was very little talk initiated by children.
The teachers Role
To develop children as speakers an ethos needs to be established where children feel secure and free to talk
without being judged. Teachers need to acknowledge and value the language that children bring to school and
this included not just the languages of children of different nationalities but the variety of accents and dialects of
our own language. Through what teachers say or how the respond children develop a sense of how they are
valued as speakers. This focus on building respectful relationships is crucially important in the early years as it
provides the basis for genuinely mutual conversations between children and adults and between children and
children. Classrooms where sustained shared thinking dialogue can take place are created by the way teachers
converse with children. We need to listen very carefully to what children say and build on their contributions by
commenting or reflecting or adding information as well as by asking questions. What they children says is at the
heart of the conversation about learning and teachers need to convey that message through their own part in the
conversation.
It is important to plan real reasons for talking. Where conversation arise out of shared activity there is the
opportunity for children to be involved in meaningful dialogue which develops and extends thought. In the best
early years practice the potential of activities such as cooking gardening and building offer opportunities for
many different types of thoughtful talk between adults and children including sorting, ordering, speculation and
planning. One of the most important things that teachers can do to develop the quality of children’s talk in the
class is to make explicit the kinds of talk they want children to sue. These include the eleven different kinds of
learning talk identified by Robin Alexander (2001) in Culture and Pedagogy
• Narrate
• Explain
• Instruct
• Ask different kinds of questions
• Perceive build upon answers
• Analyse problems
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