TEACHING STANDARD ENGLISH IN THE THIRD GRADE: CLASSROOM FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE1

Abstract

This study is based on the examination of twenty lessons of about 20 minutes duration each. Ten of the lessons dealt with teaching standard English negation (lesson 1), ten of the lessons dealt with the teaching of standard English past tense formation (lesson 2). The pupils were third graders, predominantly speakers of Vernacular Black English (VBE). The purpose of the study was (I) to determine the distribution of the main classroom discourse functions (e.g., Informing, Eliciting, Evaluating, Replying) throughout the lessons and (2) to examine the incidence of use of VBE English grammar throughout the lessons. On the basis of pre ‐and post‐tests given to pupils, each group of ten lessons was also subdivided into five high‐achieving and five low‐achieving teaching performances. High and low achieving performances were compared on selected distribution of discourse function moves.Transcriptions of the lessons were segmented into T‐units (main‐clause + possible subordinate clause) which were in turn assigned to discourse function categories. As expected, Eliciting, Informing, Evaluating were by far the most frequent discourse categories used by teachers, while the category of Replying represented nearly the only discourse function (over 90%) utilized by pupils. VBE was used only occasionally by the teachers—either spontaneously or for the purpose of demonstrating a point of grammar (3.3% of moves in lesson 1, 0.35% of moves in lesson 2). Use of VBE by pupils—either spontaneously or indrills‐was also relatively scarce (7.3% in lesson I, I .2% in lesson 2).Only one of the comparisons of “high” and “low” achieving teacher performances indicates a significant difference between the two groups. In lesson I the high achieving teachers devoted higher proportions of their moves to Elicits than the low achieving ones. An examination of the lesson transcripts suggests that this fact may be explained by the “1ow” teachers’ tendency to devote much of their lessons to lnformsdealing with a clarification of the concept of negation. This clarification, however, may have been superfluous and was. at any rate, unrelated to the criterion test. I t is suggested that analysis of discourse functions may be a useful approach to the study of teaching efficiency if it is related to meaning and the concepts of a specific lesson.