An Analysis of Classroom Discourse - University of Birmingham

teacher has deliberately withheld it for some strategic purpose” (Sinclair and Coulthard
1992, pg.27). A study carried out by Edwards and Mercer (1987 cited in Cullen, 2002,
pg.122) of a primary school EFL lesson in Malaysia concluded that a teacher’s follow-up
was particularly important in the IRF exchange structure.
3. DATA COLLECTED
I analyzed a transcription from a colleague’s primary school class. In addition to the
students and teacher being present, there was also a Korean partner teacher whose main
role was to translate directions to the students. I did not include the Korean teacher’s
discourse in my analysis, due to the fact that I cannot confidently translate Korean into
English. The materials for the class include an audiovisual CD that the teacher uses
along with a textbook. I have included the CD dialogue in the analysis because I feel it
has an important role in the discourse. The transcription was carried out in partnership
with the teacher involved who was therefore able to describe various non-verbal elements
of the interaction.
The full classroom transcription can be found in Appendix B.
4. THE APPROPRIATENESS OF SINCLAIR AND COULTHARD’S
RANK SCALE
Once transcribing the lesson, I then proceeded to analyze the transcription by applying it
to Sinclair and Coulthard’s rank scale. During the analysis I came across some
interesting discoveries regarding this model. I believe the discoveries and difficulties
when applying the transcription were partly due to the fact that my analysis was from a
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