A Comparative Analysis of Classroom Discourse in Microteaching and Practice School Contexts

Abstract

The rise of the Sociocultural Theory has featured individuals as members of a social group. It primarily asserts that individuals learn best in relation to other people, and language learning is not an exception. A great number of research studies have been conducted to investigate the role of interaction in language learning, nature of talk in interaction, and different aspects of conversations in diverse settings. Subsequent to the discovery of the power of interaction; teachers’ use of language, and skills in managing the interaction in the classroom have also gained importance. Many studies solely focused on the interactions and classroom discourse of in-service teachers in real classroom settings. However, the number of studies comparatively analyzing the classroom discourse managed by pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the microteaching and real classroom settings has remained scarce. The present research emerges out of this need to explore PSTs’ classroom discourse in microteaching and practice school contexts in a comparative manner. Three PSTs’ teaching implementations in two different settings were recorded, the interactions were transcribed, and committed to an in-depth analysis. In addition, one PST was invited to a stimulated-recall interview. The results of the current study demonstrated certain differences between microteaching and practice school contexts in terms of the classroom discourse. Inequalities in the amount of teacher talk in two contexts, difference in the rate of students’ participation, the organization of the interaction were among the major differences while the co-construction of classroom discourse and its effects on the learning process were among the commonalities.