Bridging discourses in the ESL classroom : students, teachers and researchers / by Pauline Gibbons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gibbons, Pauline, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Second language acquisition.

Physical Description:

322 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, [2006]

Summary:

Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom examines the interactions between learners and teachers in a content-based classroom. It aims to identify patterns of discourse which support both second language development and curriculum learning, and the pedagogical contexts in which they occur. These interactional patterns are 'bridging discourses' in that they build on the everyday language and prior experiences of the student in the process of developing the specialized academic registers of school. The study examines the use of these bridging discourses in two case-study classrooms to show how they offer affordances for learning.

This book puts forward an innovative new approach to the analysis of classroom discourse. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics and sociocultural theory, it argues that the significance of classroom talk for second language development can only be understood when it is examined within its situational, historical and sociocultural context. The book is recommended for academics and postgraduates researching applied linguistics and education.

Contents:

Chapter 1 'Bridging Discourses' in the ESL classroom: an introduction 1

Part 1 Language, learning and learners: perspectives across disciplines 13

Chapter 2 A sociocultural view of language and learning 15

Chapter 3 Second language learning and teaching 43

Part 2 Inside two classrooms 71

Chapter 4 Researching the classroom 73

Chapter 5 Teaching and learning in two classrooms 95

Part 3 Discourse contexts for second language development 121

Chapter 6 Teachers and learners: constructing new meanings 123

Chapter 7 The teachers: teaching as mediation 173

Chapter 8 The learners: affordances for learning 235

Appendix Episode summaries 277.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-317) and index.

ISBN:

0826455360

0826455379

OCLC:

71259425

Publisher Number:

9780826455376