Language in the Classroom

Abstract

This review discusses only research on the discourse structure of classroom activities—lessons and other activities in which the teacher is a participant— with special attention to assumptions underlying alternative models (in the non-technical sense of that word). Two other reviews (Cazden 1986a; in press) also discuss the register of teachers and students (considered as the paradigmatic complement to syntagmatic structure); discourse among student peers (in contrast to talk with the teacher who has greater ascribed power as well as knowledge), and relationships between discourse and learning.