Authors : Sima Sadeghi, Saeed Ketabi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Moslem Sadeghi
Abstract: Classroom interaction analysis requires a variety of systematic approaches to interpret the classroom discourse in its unique socio-educational context. Investigating classroom interaction based on sole reliance on quantitative techniques could be problematic, since they conceal more than they reveal of the intricacies of classroom interaction. This qualitative study aimed at analyzing classroom discourse from two perspectives. First Grice’s Cooperative Principles in 1975 was used to examine maxim observance in different genders by 22 EFL learners. Learners were required to listen to some audio materials and to discuss the topics through presenting their own perspectives. They were asked to make their arguments clear, brief, relevant and sincere. Transcriptions of classroom interactions were put into a qualitatively, critical interpretation of males and females’ adherence to or flouting of four maxims. Results indicated limitations in applying these descriptions in revealing the hidden motivations in interactions between genders. Thus, researchers utilized Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis framework (CCDA) proposed by Kumaravadivelu in 1999 which draws on Poststructuralism and postcolonialism concepts of discourse to examine classroom interaction in terms of power/knowledge and dominance/resistance.
Sima Sadeghi, Saeed Ketabi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Moslem Sadeghi, 2012. Analyzing Classroom Discourse in an EFL Situation: Towards Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis. The Social Sciences, 7: 24-29.