An Analysis of Classroom Discourse - University of Birmingham

happening here. There seems to be more going on in the discourse than can be accounted
for just by the language being used.
6. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses how a classroom transcription fits into Sinclair and Coulthard’s rank
scale, but unfortunately, I have concluded that the model does not fully cover what was
happening in this language classroom. The difficulties I had applying the transcription to
their model seem that there are larger aspects of discourse going on, specifically in the
language classroom. van Lier points out that,
“Such systems attempt to find the structure or discourse (a futile quest, I believe),
but fail to attend to the dynamism of interaction, the structuring work undertaken
by all participants in order to achieve a classroom lesson” (1984, pg.166).
It is important to remember that classes who have been taught by the same teacher for a
long period have habits of communicating and interacting. These habits are especially
important with young learners because verbal communication is limited. Analyzing only
the language involved therefore might not capture the full complexity of the discourse
and how teachers and students communicate.
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