CONVERSATION ANALYSIS IN AN ELS CLASSROOM INTERACTION

Abstract

This paper examines the conversation techniques used in an ELS real-life classroom interaction to establish how useful conversation techniques are to the realisation of effective classroom pedagogy. Working within conversation and discourse analysis theories, with restriction to five conversational techniques -turn-taking, turn design, sequence organisation, repair mechanism and overlapping-, data was drawn from six (6) teacher-student classroom interactions randomly recorded, transposed to writing, labelled and subjected to a quantitative methods of analysis. The transcripts labelled A – C were analysed based on the five conversation techniques above. The finding revealed that five conversation techniques – turn-taking, turn design, sequence organisation, repair mechanism and overlapping – were engaged in real-life classroom. It was also observed that turn-taking was the most frequently used conversation technique, followed by turn design and repair mechanism. While sequence organisation and overlapping were less frequently used because a classroom conversation is an organized type of conversation. The paper therefore concludes that turn-taking as a conversational technique will go a long way improving students’ ability of getting involved in classroom interaction because turn-taking, as a vital aspect of conversation technique, enables one to start and be involved in an effective conversation.