Gordon Wells

University of California at Santa Cruz

Combining discourse analysis with activity theory for the study of dialogue in the classroom

Abstract

With the increasing acceptance of constructivist and sociocultural theories of learning and teaching, more attention is being given to the discourse through which learning-and-teaching is enacted.  In particular, efforts are being made to shift the balance of classroom interaction from teacher-controlled monologue to collaborative dialogue. However, this latter format raises questions about the goals to be aimed for: who determines them and how should it be decided whether they have been achieved? Most approaches to discourse analysis do not address these questions, yet answers to them are of crucial importance to teachers, as they try to ensure that classroom discussion is educationally productive.

I shall propose that activity theory offers a helpful lead, based on Vygotsky's emphasis on semiotically mediated joint activity as the principal means whereby learning is assisted. In analytic terms, this means treating episodes of classroom discourse as the operational means whereby participants negotiate and try to achieve the goals of the actions that, cumulatively, enact curricular activities.

I shall illustrate my argument by drawing on the analyses that we have carried out of some 50 episodes of classroom interaction recorded in the course of a collaborative action research project aimed at creating 'Communities of Inquiry.'

Biography

Gordon Wells is currently a Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he researches and teaches in the fields of: language, literacy, and learning; the analysis of classroom interaction; and sociocultural theory. He directed the ‘Bristol Study of Language Development,' a naturalistic longitudinal study of language and literacy development. From 1984 to 2000, he was a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto where he taught, researched, and participated in collaborative action research projects.