Interactional features in second language classroom discourse: variations across novice and experienced language teachers

Abstract Classrooms provide a context in which teachers and learners co-construct meaning in light of their sociocultural understandings and profiles. However, to date, few studies have scrutinized the way such profiles contribute to teachers’ classroom discourse. Informed by the methodological framework of conversation analysis and drawing upon a corpus of 20-h naturally-occurring classroom interactions, the present study examined variations in novice and experienced teachers’ classroom discourse in providing opportunities for learner interlanguage development. The study relied on Walsh’s (2006. Investigating classroom discourse. Routledge) conceptualization of classroom context mode in the data collection and analysis stages. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data revealed that the experienced teachers’ discourse was marked by greater simultaneity and immediacy characteristics targeted at learner engagement in comparison to novice teachers. The study findings highlight variations between the two groups across a range of discursive constructions and provide implications for enhancing novice teachers’ classroom discourse.