Exploring the Betsy Rymes' Three-Dimensional Approach: A Review of Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Critical Reflection

Abstract

This book review examines the 2nd edition of Betsy Rymes' Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Tool for Critical Reflection. It includes an outline of each chapter's content, discusses the several distinctive features of the book, and its possible contribution to educational research from a practitioner's point of view. The book has nine chapters. The first four chapters first introduce the readers to basic concepts of discourse analysis within a three-dimensional approach, and then provides techniques and strategies for recording, viewing, transcribing and analyzing classroom talk through examples, activities, and questions. From Chapter V to VIII, Rymes focuses on particular resources utilized in classroom discourse such as turn taking, contextualization, storytelling and framing. Chapter IX revisits the three dimensions of classroom discourse and discusses how such a perspective may be integrated in teaching practice with an understanding of individual communicative repertoire. Overall, the book is a how-to-book for in-service teachers who would like to resolve issues of communication in their classrooms, and develop their interaction with their students.