Talking Together 1: dialogic and exploratory talk

Speaking and Listening Seminar 22011-12

Objectives

• To understand we make talk visible and turn it into a conscious tool

• To understand exploratory talk• To consider role of teacher in exploratory talk• Introduce key researchers into exploratory talk• Introduce Talk Boxes

Assignment

Everything we talk about in this seminar will be relevant to your assignment to be handed in W1 of semester 2 and for the essay preparation seminar in W9. You are advised to look at your handbook this week to familiarise yourself with the assignment title and guidance

Recap

• What are the three language modes in the National Curriculum?

• Which language modes come first in the present National Curriculum? Why?

• How is story important to human beings?

Discuss what is happening in this illustration

Great Little movers and shakers

• Lev Vygotsky• Jerome Bruner• Neil Mercer• Robin Alexander• Socrates

What is the story?

What does the research tell us about talk that goes on in the classroom?

I InitiationR ResponseF Feedback

(Sinclair and Coulthard 1975)

Fancy FearThere’s this boy at my school who fancies me. He keeps staring at me and saying that he’ll beat up my boyfriend. I’m really scared that my boyfriend is going to get hurt. What can I do about this, Laura

Shout 4th June 2010

Blackmail BetrayalPlease help, Laura. The other week I was whispering to my best

mate when my other mate spotted us. She wanted to know what we were whispering about, but we didn’t want her to know. She went into a huge mood and wouldn’t talk to us. She blackmailed me by saying she’d tell everyone who my crushes were if I didn’t tell her! I didn’t and, sure enough, by the end of the day, everyone knew, and she’d spread a rumour about my best mate! We didn’t want to be friends with her anymore, but then a few days later she asked to be mates again and I said yes! I felt so awkward, I had no choice! Did I make the right decision, Laura?

Shout 18th June 2010

Seventeen Lyrics• i learned the truth at seventeen

that love was meant for beauty queensand high school girls with clear skinned smileswho married young and then retiredthe valentines i never knewthe Friday night charades of youthwere spent on one more beautifulat seventeen i learned the truth

and those of us with ravaged faceslacking in the social gracesdesperately remained at homeinventing lovers on the phonewho called to say "come dance with me"and murmured vague obscenitiesit isn't all it seems at seventeen

a brown eyed girl in hand me downswhose name I never could pronouncesaid: "pity please the ones who servethey only get what they deserve"the rich relationed hometown queenmarries into what she needswith a guarantee of companyand haven for the elderly

• so remember those who win the gamelose the love they sought to gainin debitures of quality and dubious integritytheir small-town eyes will gape at youin dull surprise when payment dueexceeds accounts received at seventeen

to those of us who knew the painof valentines that never cameand those whose names were never calledwhen choosing sides for basketballit was long ago and far awaythe world was younger than todaywhen dreams were all they gave for freeto ugly duckling girls like me...

we all play the game, and when we darewe cheat ourselves at solitaireinventing lovers on the phonerepenting other lives unknownthat call and say: "come on, dance with me"and murmur vague obscenitiesat ugly girls like me, at seventeen

• Janis Ian 1975

Seventeen by Janis Ian Youtube Link

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_X0a8bOifU

Mercer’s Types of Talk

DisputationalCumulativeExploratory

Exploratory talk

• Because• If • Why• I think• What if

• Joint activity• Interthinking• Intermental space• Intramental space• Articulate• Analyse• Chains of response• Modify in the light of other people’s contributions

Exploratory talk is thinking aloud together - constructing knowledge through talk

Exploratory talk is hesitant and incomplete because it enables the speaker to try out ideas, to hear how they sound, to see what others make of them, to arrange information and ideas into different patterns…in exploratory talk the speaker is more concerned with sorting out his or her own thoughts

Barnes D in Dawes L. and Mercer, N. (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage

What does exploratory talk look like

• Actively participate• Ask each other questions• Share relevant information• Give reasons for their views• Constructively criticise• Try to reach agreement

Mercer (2007)

o Asking questionso Including relevant informationo Justifying ideas o Having ground ruleso Using reasoning words – if, but, becauseo Trying to reach an agreemento Trusting each other and acting as a team

Mercer et al (1999)

Ground Rules – Teacher Version• Partners engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas• Everyone participates• Tentative ideas are treated with respect• Ideas are offered for joint consideration may be challenged• Challenges are justified and alternative ideas or understandings are

offered• Opinions are sought and considered before decisions are jointly made• Knowledge is made publicly accountable (and so reasoning is visible in

the talk)

Mercer M. & Hodgkinson, S. (eds) (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage pp. 66-67

Ground rules 1

• For talk:• Share ideas• Give reasons• Question ideas• Consider• Agree• Involve everybody• Everybody accepts responsibility

Ground rules 2

• Our talking rules• We share our ideas and listen to each other• We talk one at a time• We respect each other’s opinions • We give reasons to explain our ideas• If we disagree we ask ‘why?’• We try to agree in the end

• Children internalise ground rules (shared dialogic talk) of exploratory talk and carry on a kind of silent rational dialogue with themselves

Talk Boxes

• Make a talk box with a partner• Bring it to the seminar next week• Be prepared to share it with other students

Locking it in

• In 10 seconds silence, think of the three most important/interesting things you have learned this seminar

• Share them with a colleague

Follow up task

• Watch Neil Mercer lecturing about talk as a tool for thinking (2008):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9-qMDGITo

Bibliography• Alexander, R. J. (2003) “Talk in teaching and learning; international perspectives” in

QCA New perspectives on English in the Classroom, London, QCA• Corden, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning through Talk; Strategies for the primary

classroom, Buckingham, OUP• Dawes L. and Mercer, N. (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage• Mercer (1995) The guided construction of knowledge, Clevedon, Multilingual

Matters• Mercer, N (2000) Words and minds : how we use language to think together,

London: Routledge• Mercer, N. & Littleton, K. (2007) Dialogue and the development of children's

thinking : a sociocultural approach, London: Routledge• Mercer M. & Hodgkinson, S. (eds) (2008) Exploring Talk in School London: Sage• Sinclair J. & Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse; The Language

of Teachers and Students, London, Oxford University Press• Siraj-Blatchford, I., Sylva, K., Muttock, S., Gilden, R., & Bell, D. (2002) Researching

Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years, Research Briefing 356, Nottingham, DfES

Language and thought :Vygotsky

• Vygotsky stressed that thought is not merely expressed in words it comes into existence through them

• He considered all speech to be socialised or to have a communicative function

• Children can learn effectively through interaction with a more knowledgeable other

Corden, 2000, p.7-8

Language and thought: BrunerBruner argued that:• Learning is facilitated through organised and

structured learning experiences• Children need to be provided with opportunities to

extend their current understanding• Speech is a primary instrument of thought• Bruner named the provision of appropriate

frameworks for social interaction “scaffolding”.

Corden, 2000, p. 9-11

Scum? Discuss in groups