classroom discourse analysis

Scaffolding helps students improve their skills and handle complex materials (Cloud, Genesee, & Hayaman, 2009). Although a number of studies have been done on scaffolding in Iran, few studies have identified the types and techniques of scaffolding used in English language classes. Due to the importance of scaffolding in the teaching process, this study aimed to investigate the types of scaffolding used by EFL teachers in Iran. Through availability sampling technique, eight EFL teachers in Isfahan were selected. Accordingly, their classes were all recorded, the discourse of which was transcribed, codified, and analyzed using the framework proposed by Wu (2010). The results of the study revealed that the EFL teachers mostly exploited cognitive, metacognitive, procedural, and context scaffolding. Motivational scaffolding, however, was not used in any of the classes. Moreover, the extent to which scaffolding was used in EFL classes equaled 35.8 %, of which 6.55, 11.71, 17.4, and 0.03 % was devoted to cognitive, metacognitive, procedural, and context scaffolding, respectively. This study puts forward the view that teacher educators and material developers should turn their attention to the development of tasks through which language instructors can take advantage of motivational and contextual scaffolds that actively involve students in learning.

The present research aimed at investigating the interaction of the classroom talk to have a better understanding of the teachers’ practice teaching which can pave the way for reflection on teaching. The study benefitted from conversation analytic perspective to qualitatively and interpretively examine the classroom discourse of the teacher-learner interaction. The classroom talk was analyzed through conversation analysis perspective with taking the extracts of the learners’ and teacher’s interactions into account to see whether tasks paved the way for the learners to learn the target from through ‘Focus on Form’ approach. The findings could be beneficial for the practitioners in the field.