Researching Classroom Discourse

Book excerpt: This practical guide to doing classroom discourse research provides a comprehensive overview of the research process. Bringing together both discourse analysis and classroom discourse research, this book helps readers to develop the analytic and rhetorical skills needed to conduct, and write about, the discourse of teaching and learning. Offering step-by-step guidance, each chapter is written so that readers can put the theoretical and methodological issues of classroom discourse analysis into practice while writing an academic paper. Chapters are organized around three stages of research: planning, analyzing, and understanding and reporting. Reflective questions and discourse examples are used throughout the book to assist readers. This book is essential reading for modules on classroom discourse or thesis writing and a key supplementary resource for research methods, discourse analysis, or language teaching and learning.