Dialogism and classroom interaction in English language teaching: A review of Czech research

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of the present study is to review Czech research on classroom interaction in English language teaching. We understand classroom interaction as mutual in luencing among a teacher and learners while teaching and learning. We view classroom interaction from the perspective of dialogism, which we use as a theoretical and epistemological framework assuming interaction as a unit of analysis. This review analyzes 9 empirical studies published as journal articles, books, book chapters or Ph.D. dissertations in the years 2006-2014. These studies were critically analyzed in the light of dialogism. Important indings include the fact that a number of studies dealt with teacher talk, mainly teacher questions and the use of the target language and the mother tongue. We compare the areas with the situation abroad as re lected in selected reviews of international research, and outline gaps in Czech research. As regards research methodology (and also theoretical background), a number of stu dies did not take context into consideration when analyzing classroom. Furthermore, it seems that the activity of individuals (teachers, learners) was the unit of analysis in the majority of studies rather than the interaction itself. These indings seem to suggest that dialogism was not employed in the empirical research to a greater extent.

“What is the date today?”: A dialogist perspective on expert EFL teachers’ classroom interaction

“…Relatedly, Ehrlich and Freed (2009) refer to formal, functional and sequential criteria for defining a question. Although a great deal of Czech research on classroom interaction focuses on teacher questions, attention is paid mainly to formal and functional criteria by adopting a monologist perspective (for more details see Tůma, 2014aTůma, , 2014b. In dialogism, the sequential criterion plays an important role, since any utterance "makes response to something and is calculated to be responded to in turn" (Vološinov, 1973, p. 72).…”

“…In general, the phenomenon of classroom interaction has been studied from a number of perspectives (not only dialogist ones), including quantitative observation methods, (micro)ethnographic research, linguistic approaches and conversation analysis (Mercer, 2010;Mitchell, 2009;Rampton, Roberts, Leung, & Harris, 2002; for reviews of Czech educational research on classroom interaction, see Mareš, 2009;Tůma, 2014aTůma, , 2014b.…”