Analysing Bilingual Classroom Discourse

Abstract

The present paper analyses and evaluates spoken discourse in the bilingual classroom at Damascus University. It looks at the mechanism of classroom interaction: the use of questions, initiations, repetitions and expansions. Although this paper deals with classroom interaction at Damascus University, it is believed that the results arrived at may be of a more general interest. Video- and audiorecordings of interaction in six EFL classrooms at the ESP Centre, Damascus University are examined in detail. The findings of this research show that classroom language is artificial; this can be exemplified by the teacher's simplified input, his use of display questions that restrict students' responses and his greater number of initiations. This type of discourse is usually described as ‘artificial’, ‘contrived’ and deliberately ‘planned’ for practising the language. It contrasts with other types of language produced in real communicative discourse described as ‘natural’ or ‘authentic’. Given this, EFL learners find themselves unable to assign any communicative value to the forms of the language they learn through controlled interaction. Consequently, this paper suggests ways of improving spoken discourse in the EFL classroom to make it less artificial and more genuine.

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