The Organization of Primary School Children's On-Task and Off-Task Talk in a Small Group Setting

Abstract

This article deals with the organization of children's interaction in a school setting where the teacher is absent. Basing my analysis on a 30-min session where a small mixed-age group of pupils are working on a math problem, I examine the ways in which the children accomplish the task, the "on-task talk" through which they organize and work through a particular activity, as well as attending to the phenomenon of "off-task talk" as it is interwoven through their interaction on this occasion. In particular, I show how in the course of this activity the children shift between the goal-directed interaction of on-task talk and more conversational, non-task-related forms of interaction, or "small talk." It is the interplay between these 2 forms of talk that provides the discursive context through which the children align themselves, not simply to the task at hand but also to the social relations that hold both locally within the group and in the wider school community.