Teacher‐Pupil Discourse in Classrooms for Hearing‐Impaired Children

Abstract

Early studies of teacher‐pupil discourse in classrooms for the hearing‐impaired showed that it is systematic, teacher‐controlled and interlaced with language content. Discourse analysis, based on qualitative methods of study, augments and qualifies these views by providing a technique for examining multiple levels of interaction. Discourse material excerpted from a language lesson conducted by an experienced primary teacher with five hearing‐impaired pupils suggests that teacher‐pupil interaction is organized on several levels of structure. A hierarchy of lesson interaction is demonstrated through the illustrative discourse samples; hierarchical levels of roles, tasks, phrases, topics, sequences, turns, and utterances are identified and discussed. Educational implications about the learning structure of the classroom for the hearing‐impaired are offered.