Producing and closing down multiple-response sequences during whole-class talk in an early years classroom

Abstract

The Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) talk sequence dominates whole-class talk in school lessons but frequently provides limited talk options for students. This article examines a variant of the sequence produced by young children and their teacher in an early years’ classroom. The multiple-response sequences were identified in classroom recordings of literacy lessons where a teacher deliberately sought to increase contributions by students during whole-class talk. Conversation analysis (CA) of selected sequences delineates some of the ways the teacher’s talk led to multiple turns by students, how teacher turns were sometimes inserted into multiple responses given by students, and how multiple responses were closed down by teacher turns. Discussion addresses the specific design of teacher turns across sequences, students’ orientations to the teacher during multiple responses, and the occurrence of trouble in turn-taking as an aspect of the multi-party setting. Overall, the study establishes some ways that talk in multiple-response sequences shows increased opportunities for students to contribute to instructional talk.

KEYWORDS:

• multiple-response sequence
• classroom talk
• Conversation Analysis

Acknowledgements

We thank the teacher and children who participated in the action research project analysed here. We would also like to acknowledge Adam Webster (CSU) who video-recorded some lessons drawn upon in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article draws on data from the project, Researching dialogic pedagogies for literacy learning across the primary years, funded by the Primary English Teaching Association, Australia. Ethical approval was given by Charles Sturt University (2015/257), Department of Education and Training, NSW (2015524) and Catholic Schools Office (23–02–2016).