This document discusses the potential benefits of using a dialogic pedagogy approach with young adult refugee-background English language learners. It notes that dialogic teaching focuses on classroom interactions that engage students and extend their thinking. The author aims to examine if introducing evaluative and interrogatory talk through purposeful teacher modeling can encourage the development of students' critical and creative thinking skills. Preliminary findings suggest that establishing collective and supportive classroom discussions, as well as changes in how the teacher structures talk, have increased student confidence, engagement and willingness to question in English. The document considers how a dialogic approach may benefit similar language learning contexts.
3. • Robin Alexander
• Two “pedagogical habits: … recitation and pseudo-
enquiry” (Alexander, 2008, p. 93)
• “Talk is the foundational act of language” (Resnick,
Michaels & O’Connor, 2010, p. 163)
• Spoken interactions facilitate or hinder language
learning process
From “Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off” (1986)
Why Dialogic Teaching?
9. How has classroom talk changed?
• Introduce and model evaluative and interrogatory talk, through
purposeful teacher talk (Alexander, 2008)
• Student responses: increased questioning
• Questioning: feedback, wait time, participation cues
• “push…[them] beyond their current abilities and levels of
understanding” (Hammond, 2005, p. 9)
12. Thankyou for listeningJ
skye.playsted@icloud.com
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