Going ‘meta’: using a metadiscoursal approach to develop secondary students’ dialogic talk in small groups

Abstract

This paper reports on a year-long research study: four teachers of English, their Year 8 (13–14 year old) classes (110 students) in urban, secondary schools and a university teacher educator investigated the contexts for students to develop dialogic, exploratory talk in small groups. Assuming a Vygotskyan perspective, the study adapted a pedagogic model from an earlier project, endorsing a structured approach to talk, with ‘ground-rules’ and reflection. The study investigated how this guided model might intersect with other aspects of classroom culture, practice and identity to effect sustained development in students? use of exploratory, dialogic talk. The project involved research collaboration cross-school, including students exchanging formative feedback on videotaped talk. Qualitative research methods comprised comparative discourse analysis of audio and videotapes of representative group talk; semi-structured lesson observations; and sequential teacher and student interviews. The study concludes that practising a structured model and reflecting on discourse had a liberating effect on the majority of students, enabling experimentation with different forms of dialogic talk and identities. Shifts in discourse, confidence and identity positioning were particularly marked in ‘lower-attaining’ students of lower socio-economic status. Teachers’ metadiscoursal reflection resulted in changes in teacher?student relationships and classroom talk characterised by tentativeness, permitting knowledge to be contested.

Keywords:

• dialogic talk
• secondary English
• metadiscourse
• collaborative groups
• exploratory talk

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to authors cited above, colleagues at the University of Sussex, the journal?s peer reviewers and, in particular, to Henrietta Dombey, Tamsin Banks, Emily Holland, Sally Rodgers and Paul Shellard.

Notes on Contributor

Julia Sutherland is a senior lecturer in Education and Co-director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR) at the University of Sussex. Her teaching and research interests are in secondary English and teacher education, in particular, classroom discourse, dialogism, reading comprehension and teacher development through research. Funded research projects and evaluations include guided reading; whole-school approaches to developing talk and reading to maximise the learning of students of socioeconomic disadvantage; and coaching beginner teachers to develop their students? collaborative talk and thinking.