Exploratory Talk Research Articles

Effective Classroom Management in English as a Foreign Language Classroom

Classroom management is an essential element of the teaching and learning process which determines the quality of instruction. This research aims to investigate the elements of classroom management which can be effectively applied in EFL classrooms. This study is a review research study, where the data were collected from 43 previously published materials, restricted to books, dissertations, and articles published in academic journal. The data were analysed using data condensation, data display and conclusion drawing. The results of this study show that there are three elements of classroom management, i.e. seating arrangements, engagement, and participation. The seating arrangement has three effective components including u-shaped, sitting in a group, and orderly row. Further, student engagement consists of cognitive, behavioural, academic, emotional, social, intellectual, physiological, affective and relational engagement approaches. Meanwhile, participation includes classroom talk, teacher talk, collaborative talk, exploratory talk, disputational talk, and learner-managed talk. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers utilize effective classroom management components based on the results of this study to improve the quality of instruction.

Peer Interaction by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Students in a Decision Making Task

Tasks are frequently used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. The sociocultural theory considers tasks to mediate learners through language. However, how a specific task can embrace such a claim remains an issue to explore. This study was set out to address the questions of how a decision making task stimulated interaction among peers and how it mediated knowledge construction. Thirty EFL junior college students forming fifteen pairs participated in the study. The recorded videos of their decision-making task performance were used for data analysis. The findings reveal that cumulative talk was present in all pairs’ recordings. While exploratory talk was not generated as frequently as cumulative talk, it tended to conduce to more language learning and knowledge construction. The findings also indicate that with the same task, peers interacted in different patterns and mediated each other by providing immediate assistance with English vocabulary and ideas.

#Fact or #opinion: the educational design of a microblogging activity intended to engage students in productive interactions

ABSTRACT Educational activities using microblogging co-located with face-to-face communication might promote productive classroom interactions. However, much depends on how teachers design those activities. This article explores how the educational design of an activity that uses microblogging engages lower secondary school students in classroom interactions that are productive for learning. It presents a study of one teacher’s educational design in which students (aged 12–13) in a Norwegian classroom use microblogging to explore distinctions between facts and opinions. Moreover, the authors consider how the students pick up on the educational design. The findings show that an educational design involving microblogging can provide new possibilities to facilitate peer interactions by systematically enabling students to access more of their peers’ ideas, produce and discuss collective ideas and participate in exploratory talk. In particular, the use of hashtags proves suitable for facilitating peer interactions with the aim to develop students’ critical thinking.

Making sense of sensing: Scaffolding community knowledge in an online informal scientific engagement

In the relatively understudied area of online informal scientific engagements, this paper aims to unpack the process of creating and sharing knowledge and understanding through dialogue. This is done through online ethnography in an initiative where members with their own air pollution monitors are discussing matters of air pollution, monitoring, data, and technical issues in a public Facebook group. By analysing a sample of text-based dialogue through the framework of exploratory talk, this paper addresses how knowledge and changes of understanding are negotiated, and situated, through social interaction within the community. The findings provide detailed and empirical insights into the ways in which the members of this informal online scientific community create and share meaning through social interaction. The use of low-cost sensors, active participation in the Facebook group, and a shared interest in understanding their own air pollution data are here shown to mediate further engagement and informal learning. Through social interaction and by sharing resources, members are enabled to engage in productive dialogue where common knowledge is created and scaffolded in the community over time. By unpacking the content and context dependent aspects of dialogue, this paper argues for the importance of meaningful participation for productive dialogues. • Productive and social interactions stimulated and guided idea development. • Explicit reasoning enabled peers to contribute to a change of understanding. • Sharing detailed information and resources confirmed possible explanations. • Implicit and specific referencing situated common community knowledge.

EFL teachers’ perception towards online classroom interaction during covid-19 pandemic

The spread of Covid-19 is affecting education systems around the world and transform the learning from face-to-face to online learning. Interaction is important pattern to share knowledge between teachers and students. Previous research has said that interaction could also encourage students to master the subject matter. This study aims to describe the EFL teachers’ perception towards classroom interaction during Covid-19 pandemic especially on how the interaction between teacher-student, student-teacher, and student-student synchronously which is assisted by Google Meet. The research method used in this study is descriptive case study and taking data by conducting observation, interview, and documentation. Based on research result, teacher perceive online classroom interaction in balance emotion, exploratory talk tends to be implemented in online classroom interactions, Indirect talk of asking questions is the dominant online classroom interaction.

«Dere skal være enige med meg også!» Elevers administrering av gruppesamtaler i en periode med eksplisitt samtaleundervisning i norskfaget

I denne artikkelen undersøker jeg hvordan elever på 7. trinn administrerte gruppe­samtaler underveis i et ti uker langt undervisningsforløp med eksplisitt undervisning i samtaleferdigheter. Designet av norsktimene i denne perioden var inspirert av «Talk Lessons» fra Thinking Together-tilnærmingen (Dawes et al., 2004), som blant annet innebærer etablering av samtaleregler for å fremme utforskende gruppesamtale (eng. «exploratory talk»). Jeg analyserer samtaleadministrering i fire smågrupper ved hjelp av den konstant komparative metoden (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Seks former for sam­taleadministrerende ytringer i materialet blir eksemplifisert og analysert med hensyn til hvilke funksjoner ytringene har i elevenes gruppesamtaler. Funnene indikerer at under­visningen stimulerte elevenes bevissthet om egen og andres samtaledeltakelse, selv om måten samtalene ble administrert på i flere tilfeller virket mekanisk. Dette tyder på at elevene var i ferd med å mestre nye kommunikative redskaper, men at disse enda ikke var fullt approprierte. Et annet funn er at gruppesamtalene var preget av et «enighets­trykk», der elevene ble opptatte av å komme raskt fram til felles svar. Dette enighets­trykket så ut til å være kontraproduktivt med tanke på at samtalereglene skulle stimulere til utforsking. Artikkelen er et bidrag til norskfagets muntlighetsdidaktikk ved at den belyser betydningen av eksplisitt samtaleundervisning. Samtidig leder også funnene til kritisk refleksjon rundt elementer ved undervisningstilnærmingen som ble prøvd ut. Nøkkelord: muntlige ferdigheter, norskfaget, mellomtrinnet, utforskende samtale, samtaleregler

Student uptake of whole class instructional talking points in their writing

Data are from a two-year ethnographic study of a diverse, urban classroom community of seven-and-eight-year-olds in the US. Research interest is in student uptake in their writing as a marker of learning. We want to know whether, and how, students who have routinely experienced exploratory talk about instructional points, take up these points in their writing a few weeks later. We examine a class set of writing for evidence. By student uptake we mean the appearance of a teaching point in individually written student stories. We apply nine uptake codes and report descriptive statistics for student stories (N=17) and take a qualitative look at 6 stories. We found widespread and consistent uptake of instructional points.

Fostering critical thinking in English-as-a-second-language classrooms: Challenges and opportunities

Critical thinking, as a highly valued generic skill, lies at the heart of education worldwide. Although research suggests a close relationship between language and thinking, the integration of critical thinking into second language acquisition is under-investigated. This study therefore explores the viability of exploratory talk and WebQuests for critical-thinking development in learners of English as a second language. The study constitutes an exploratory cycle of a ‘design research’ project conducted in a primary school in Hong Kong. The project as a whole collected data from five different sources (i.e. tests of critical thinking, audio-recordings of group discussions, classroom observations, students’ written work, and interviews with teachers) and had 125 Primary Five student participants (aged 11–12) and five English teacher participants. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative findings on classroom dialogue, this study reveals the participating students to have displayed critical thinking through the use of explicit reasoning and exploratory talk in group discussions. The findings have pedagogical implications, offer suggestions for critical-thinking cultivation in the English-as-a-second-language context and contribute to scholarly understanding of the need to integrate instructional strategies for critical thinking into language classrooms.

Det’ lig’som teksten sådan bølger

This article addresses the practice of shared readings at The Danish Academy of Creative Writing. It argues that these readings represent exploratory talk as a method of reading the aesthetic dimensions of literary texts. Moreover, it points out that both exploratory approaches and aesthetic readings are of increasing interest within the field of didactical research. The article aims to investigate the shared readings at the Danish Academy of Creative Writing as a supplement to the highly analytical classroom conversations about literature in Danish high schools.

児童の探索的会話を中心とした討議から生成される独自の卒業式の成立過程の分析 ―館山市立北条小学校，卒業式第２部の事例研究―

児童の探索的会話を中心とした討議から生成される独自の卒業式の成立過程の分析 ―館山市立北条小学校，卒業式第２部の事例研究―

‘I’ll be the hero’: how adolescents negotiate intersectional identities within a high school dual-language program

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine how adolescents in a dual-language program negotiate intersectional identities through interaction, while engaged in small-group exploratory talk around the task of a collaborative-writing project. We recognize that while dual-language settings can help adolescents build relationships with ethnolinguistically different peers who might be otherwise tracked into separate classrooms, dual-language spaces, nested within a larger racialized U.S. system, also have potential to reify marginalized identities. Using a microethnographic lens, we examine how students in an extra-curricular high school dual-language Spanish-English program negotiate intersectional identities while engaging in small-group work to write a bilingual book to share with elementary students. We found that the small-group setting was a space where students negotiated both marginalized and privileged identities, sometimes related to language and other times related to a host of other factors. We consider how talking directly with adolescents about the roles that might be placed on them as participants in dual-language programs can enlist them in the work of creating dual-language spaces that validate the various identities students seek to take up.

Peer-led focus groups as ‘dialogic spaces’ for exploring young people’s evolving values

ABSTRACT Although peer-led focus groups are widely used in research with children and young people, surprisingly little has been written that evaluates their methodological appropriateness. Drawing on data from 10 peer-led focus group sessions across 5 international schools, this article demonstrates how focus group discussions around moral and social values, which become more meaningful though the self-reflection provoked in encounters with different experiences and perspectives, can be advantageous for research. Peer-moderators, as both participants and facilitators, run focus groups that open dialogic spaces for exploratory talk that avoids the self-censure and deference that can emerge in the presence of an adult moderator. This is particularly important when participants are structurally disadvantaged and lack similar spaces for collaborative inquiry into their shared experiences. Video capture allows researchers in-depth access to these focus groups after the event, revealing evidentially and pedagogically rich dialogues.

SCT and Translanguaging-to-learn

This paper arose as a result of dialogue between researchers involved in a research project undertaken across England, Finland, France, and Romania. The research aimed to improve the educational experience for Roma children in school, who face sustained racism, discrimination and poverty, alongside reduced levels of access to and inequitable outcomes in education, by focusing on translanguaging as a transformative pedagogy. A close reading of the translanguaging literature revealed an oft assumed sociocultural understanding of learning. This paper is an exploration of the synergies and tensions between sociocultural theory as a learning theory and translanguaging as a theory of language in use and as a pedagogical approach in order to suggest a conceptual integration useful to both. In particular, we focus on the formation and form of Vygostkian inner speech, given its central role in higher mental activity such as learning. We examine movement between external speech in collaborative activity (and to oneself) to condensed inner speech in reimagining Guerrero's (2005) schema, by fusing translanguaging theory with Vygotskian notions of sense and meaning, and everyday and scientific concepts. We also consider translanguaging in joint activity in terms of neo-Vygotskian notions of cumulative and exploratory talk, arguing the usefulness of microgenetic analysis to reveal learning in action within joint activity. The paper therefore provides both a renewal of sociocultural understandings of language and learning, and conceptual tools for a more refined and robust articulation and analysis of the operation of translanguaging-to-learn.

Behind the scenes: Unpacking student discussion and critical reflection in lectures

AbstractThis study investigated the characteristics of peer discussions used to support formative assessment in lectures, facilitated by a student response system, in an undergraduate qualitative methods course for psychology students. The intent was to examine the characteristics of peer discussions in which student response systems are used to facilitate the practice of formative assessment lectures. The research was guided by the following research questions: (1) What patterns of talk can be identified in the discussions? (2) How do the students use subject‐specific vocabulary in the discussions? (3) How the students’ understanding of the subject matter displayed in these discussions? To examine the characteristics of peer interactions, 87 student discussions were recorded and analysed. The concept of exploratory talk was used as a lens to examine the discussions. In 68 of the 87 discussions, the students exchanged ideas and elaborated on their peers’ ideas and understanding of the concepts. In the remaining 25 discussions, the process of reasoning was less visible. The findings are relevant for teaching designs that aims to use digital tools to facilitate formative assessment. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Student response systems can support formative assessment and feedback in lectures. The most common approaches used in research on student response systems to support formative assessment is questionnaires or interviews. Few studies have provided detailed analyses of clicker‐supported peer discussions. What the paper adds Provides insights into the micro‐processes in clicker‐supported discussions. Critically discusses the role of discussions facilitated by student response systems to support formative feedback in the classroom. The paper contributes to scholarship in this field by drawing attention to the qualities of the activities created for formative assessment. Discusses the validity of the inferences drawn from the use of student response systems in the classroom. Implications for policy and practice Analysis of discussions shows that there is not necessarily a correlation between aggregated answers and students' understanding. To ensure that valid inferences can be drawn from activities as a basis for feedback, the questions used and threats to the validity of possible inferences should be critically examined.

I Hear You: Teaching Social Justice in Interactive Read-Aloud

The authors share their responsive teaching to develop children’s exploratory talk during interactive read-aloud with books.

Going meta: Dialogic talk in the writing classroom

The rich body of research on dialogic, exploratory talk points to its significance in developing and securing student learning (Alexander, 2018; Gillies, 2016; O’Connor & Michaels, 2007; Reznitskaya et al., 2009). More recently, this body of research has begun to consider dialogic talk specifically in the context of literacy education (for example, Boyd & Markarian, 2015; Edwards-Groves & Davidson, 2017; Juzwik et al., 2013; Wilkinson et al., 2015). However, there remains a dearth of research which considers the role of dialogic talk in the teaching and learning of writing, and particularly its role in supporting developing writers’ metalinguistic understanding of how linguistic choices shape meaning in written texts. This article will report on qualitative data drawn from a national study, involving a randomised controlled trial and an accompanying process evaluation. The study involved an intervention which was informed by a Hallidayan theoretical framing of metalinguistic understanding which sees grammar as a meaning-making resource, and which promoted explicit teaching which made purposeful connections between grammatical choices and their meaning-making effects in writing, and which promoted the role of dialogic talk. Specifically, this article will consider how teachers manage this metalinguistic dialogic talk about language choices in the writing classroom.

Development and evaluation of a WebQuest-based teaching programme: Students’ use of exploratory talk to exercise critical thinking

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study involving the development and implementation of a WebQuest-based critical-thinking programme in Hong Kong primary English classrooms. Using ‘design research’ as its methodological framework, the study investigated the critical-thinking performance of 125 primary school students. Sociocultural discourse analysis of classroom dialogue during programme implementation revealed the participating students to have engaged in explicit reasoning and used ‘exploratory talk’ as a dialogic tool in exercising critical thinking. The study has profound implications for pedagogical practice with respect to the use of educational technology for critical-thinking cultivation. This article thus makes significant contributions to the WebQuest and critical-thinking literature, extending it to the Hong Kong language education context and beyond.

A multilevel SEM study of classroom talk on cooperative learning and academic achievement: Does cooperative scaffolding matter?

Although exploratory talk between teachers and students and amongst students can promote positive learning experiences and cognitive development, it is the former that has dominated much of contemporary classroom discourse. Research over the past four decades has not provided a convincing response to whether some modes of talk may be more beneficial, and in what order. Using a quantitative approach, students were surveyed on five facets of classroom talk and teacher scaffolding of cooperative learning. Academic performance and background (individual and classroom compositional) characteristics were also examined. Findings are broadly consistent with literature in regard to the dominance of presentational teacher questions. However, conventional recitation instruction appears to be educationally valuable when used skillfully with exploratory talk and cooperative teacher scaffolds.

A STUDY OF STUDENTS' GROUP DIALOGUES ON THE USE OF HIGH-LEVEL COMPREHENSION FEATURES IN AN EFL READING CLASS

This study aimed to examine junior college students' group dialogues on the use of high-level comprehension features in an EFL reading class. The participants were one high-ability group and one low-ability group in terms of discussion proficiency. Eight representative discussions conducted in the students' first language served as the major data source, which were analyzed for discourse features linked to high-level thinking and comprehension, based on the criteria identified by Soter et al. (2008). Interviews and students' reading logs were collected to provide supporting evidence of how the EFL learners undertook their group reading tasks. The results revealed that both focus groups, to some extent, were able to incorporate all discourse features that indicate high-level learning and comprehension of texts without regard to discussion proficiency. The major differences were that the high-ability group had more uptake questions, whereas the low-ability group engaged in longer and more numerous episodes of elaborated explanations and of exploratory talk. That the low-ability group exhibited more talk and indicators of quality discussion than the high-ability group could be possibly explained with the genre of reading materials, personal belief about reading stories, and the use of nonverbal information and of personal connections. Despite the differences, the two groups demonstrated the language of high-level comprehension to ＂interthink＂ deeply about the text. The study concludes that through incorporating discourse features linked to high-level comprehension, students could guide one another toward deeper engagement with the text in group reading.

Lesson Study: analytic stance and depth of noticing in post-lesson discussions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed light on teachers’ attention to student learning in post-lesson discussions in Lesson Study (LS) by exploring the depth and analytic stance of noticing (van Es, 2011) and by identifying interactions that may extend or narrow the levels of noticing.Design/methodology/approachThe study has dug deeply into post-lesson discussions in the context of two different LS groups at a Norwegian lower secondary school.FindingsThe paper provides empirical insights about crucial elements of teachers’ learning processes pertaining to their professional noticing. Sharing of rich descriptions of evidence of student learning appeared to be a necessary foundation for the deepening of the teacher groups’ analytic approach. The study highlights the importance of teacher groups’ openness and attention to the collected data and a shared willingness to go deep into the interpretations. Interthinking and exploratory talk (Littleton and Mercer, 2013) are emphasised as important social interaction and talk modes to deepen the analytic stance and depth of noticing.Research limitations/implicationsEven though this is a small study, it brings to light important knowledge about how interactions in post-research lesson discussions in LS can influence teachers’ professional noticing.Practical implicationsAn implication of the study is to design observation forms that capture student learning as tools for teachers’ professional noticing.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils an identified need to investigate teachers’ learning processes in LS, including how interactions within a teacher group influence noticing.