Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the themes that constitute this book, which is written by and for educators and applied linguists who wish to get a comparative overview of research on classroom discourse and interaction. The book is concerned with both language learning and use, and how these domains of language are co-involved in understanding everything that routinely happens in language classrooms. More specifically, it is concerned with instructed second language acquisition theory and discourse analysis. These themes are explored in a Research Methodology and Assessment section, and in six research “Traditions:” the Educational, Language Socialization, Conversation Analysis and Critical Theory Traditions. It also provides an extensive discussion of context in classroom research. The book focuses on second, foreign and heritage language classrooms that are located in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In order to situate this volume within a broader educational perspective, some attention is also paid to academic and vocational classrooms in which content subjects are taught through the first language, as well as to the organization of talk in institutional contexts which lie somewhere in between traditional classrooms and completely informal contexts of language learning is organized.