Dialogic Space in I-R-E Discourse: Teacher Talk during Storytelling in Elementary English Classrooms

Dialogic Space in I-R-E Discourse: Teacher Talk during Storytelling in Elementary English Classrooms

This study aimed at explicating types and patterns of teacher talk in storytelling lesson events in English classrooms and discovering how dialogic moments were created during storytelling. The data for this study is based on two videotaped storytelling lesson events in 4th grade-level elementary English classrooms. Teachers’ utterances were analyzed inductively according to the types and topics as well as students’ utterances in order to understand the interactional context of the lesson. Overall, the traditional I-R-E discourse was discovered to govern interactions in the two lesson events. However, the lesson events showed interaction dynamics unique to each classroom. Classroom G revealed a more teacher-directed interaction pattern than Classroom S through more use of teacher direction, question, repetition, and confirmation. The teachers' questions about story content and responses to students were more frequently observed in Classroom S, suggesting that Classroom S involved more dialogic interactions between the teachers and students than Classroom G. Analysis of the teacher-student interactions in the flow of the lesson event revealed that dialogic spaces were created when the teachers offered students chances to connect words to real objects, imagine and express their personal ideas, and immerse themselves in the story narrative. In addition, the teachers appeared to shape a space in which students were able to talk voluntarily. The teachers’ use of polyphony was noticeable in Classroom S, which　 appeared to immerse the children in the story.This study includes Implications regarding teachers and teacher educators.