Critical Analysis of Classroom Discourse

Abstract

The present study entitled Critical Analysis of Classroom Discourse is an attempt to find out what kind of discourse practices and social practices are reflected by the language used in classroom. The main objective of the study was to critically analyse the classroom discourse in terms of interactional control, politeness and power. To achieve the objective of the study, and the researcher adapted Fairclough’s (1992) Critical Discourse Analysis Framework. The researcher used both primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher purposively selected three private schools of the valley and recorded nine conversations, three from each school to collect primary data. In a similar vein, the researcher also took help of the books, articles and journals related to CDA. The main tools of data collection were observation and audio recording. The collected data has been analysed and interpreted descriptively. The study found that teacher dominance was reflected in turn-taking systems, exchange structures, topic control and overall structure of the discourse. The study also found the use of direct and commanding type of language in the teacher’s speech while in the students’ speech, hedging, more politeness and less direct language was observed. Though these features found in teacher’s speech and students’ speech are common, teacher domination was found more than desirable. Even in the situations where students outdid in the class, they did not get respect from their teachers. The study also showed that the power in the classroom resided with the teacher. Power was shown by teachers’ overlaps, questions, commands, and the way they addressed their students. The research consists of four chapters. The first chapter deals with general backgrounds, review of related literature, objectives and significance of the study. The second chapter deals with the methodology that consists of sources of data, sampling procedure, tools for data collection and limitations of the study respectively. The third chapter consists of analysis and interpretation of the data. Similarly, the fourth chapter includes conclusions, findings, and pedagogic implications. The final part of the study subsumes references and appendices.