Classroom Discourse Analysis: The Nature of Classroom Interaction

There are some interesting things that students often observe and ask when they participate in classroom activities. Things like the question, "How can a teacher have a good bond with his/her students when teaching?" or "How can a teacher bring all students to be actively involved in learning?". As it turns out, these questions are related to the topic that will be discussed, which is about Classroom Discourse Analysis. Discourse is a way to communicate thoughts through conversation or talk. Meanwhile, according to McCarthy (1991:5), Discourse Analysis is the study of the relationship between language and its context of use. So, it can be said that Classroom Discourse refers to the language of interaction that teachers use to their students when they communicate between each other during the process of learning activities in the classroom. Therefore, this essay will discuss four aspects that teachers should have to control classroom interactions, which can answer students' questions above. The four aspects, according to Walsh (2011: 4) include Control of the interaction, Speech Modification, Elicitation, and Repair and will be discussed one by one along with examples.

The first aspect is Control of the Interaction which is a process where the teacher controls the communication pattern such as choosing the topic of conversation, appointing whose turn it is to speak, as well as how long students speak. The teacher can even interrupt a student's answer and give the opportunity to others or change the topic of the conversation, this relates as Breen said that it is the teacher who 'organizes the interaction' (1998: 119). Meanwhile, students usually receive cues from the teacher. As in the following example:
T: Ani can you differentiate between simple present tense and simple past tense?
L1 : Simple present tense uses verb 1 while simple past tense uses verb 2.
T :Very good. Now Budi, give me an example sentence using simple present tense.
L2 : Deni... (few seconds unintelligible)=
T : Yeah, what verb does Budi use if it's a simple present tense?
L2 : Verb 1. Deni goes to school.
T : Good, that's right. Because "go" is verb 1.
The example above shows that the teacher starts the discussion by asking Ani about the difference between the two tenses that have been learned. Then the teacher gave an additional question by giving the opportunity to answer to another student, Budi. Then, the teacher seeks clarification and helps the student answer and also controls the exact content of the student's answer. From this example, it can be seen that the teacher has control in controlling interaction and controlling participation.