<p>Teacher talk is a powerful pedagogical tool in the science classroom. Educators use their talk to provide information, guide discussions, check for understanding, and develop students' scientific identities. However, few researchers have investigated how teachers use their talk during an integrated science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) unit. This three-study dissertation investigates how teachers use their talk to introduce a new discipline to students and how their talk affects student learning and engagement during an integrated STEM unit. I designed these research studies to answer the overall question: What talk moves do teachers use during an integrated STEM unit, and how does the teacher talk affect student engagement and learning? Study 1 is a multiple case study investigating how teachers guide classroom discussions and how that teacher talk affects student learning during the integrated STEM unit. Results demonstrate the importance of teachers carefully balancing dialogic discussions and providing information during these instructional units. Study 2 is an interpretative qualitative study that investigates how a teacher's autonomy-supportive and/or suppressive talk affects student engagement during the integrated unit. Results show that each student responded differently to the teacher talk that occurred in the classroom. While some became more engaged when the teacher used autonomy-supportive talk, others became disengaged during the same type of talk. Study 3 is a multiple case study investigating the talk moves teachers use when integrating engineering concepts in the curriculum. Results show that the two teachers requested student participation in the conversation about engineering more during the first lesson of the unit than the last. In addition, only one of the two teachers in this study incorporated talk about engineering into the science lessons. The last chapter of this dissertation synthesizes the data from all three studies. This chapter identifies some common themes across the studies, including the complex nature of teacher talk, the influence of non-talk factors, and the importance of dialogic discussion. This chapter also identifies some implications for teaching, including the need to restructure the curriculum units and to coach teachers during their first implementation of an integrated STEM unit.</p>

The purpose of the present study is to expand our current understanding of second language classroom discourse by exploring how four English as a second language (ESL) teachers working in an intensive English program structurally organize classroom language lessons through the use of language; how students and teachers perceive the functions of the various stages in a lesson; how teachers prepare for their language lessons; and how various discourses and texts in this teaching context influence teachers‘ spoken discourse in the classroom. In order to carry out the exploratory study of language lessons, a multidimensional genre-oriented approach is utilized that is sensitive to both textual and contextual analyses of language lessons. The findings suggest that despite the spontaneous nature of classroom settings and sometimes improvised nature of classroom teaching, experienced ESL teachers have generated and internalized schemata of language lessons, which consists of a stable schematic structure and linguistic patterns that are recognizable by both teachers and students. However, rather than viewing a language lesson as a distinctive genre, the study suggests that it might be described more precisely as a sub-genre of the classroom discourse genre proper that shares broad communicative purposes with other classroom discourse sub-genres, although also maintaining its own distinct characteristics. Further, the analysis indicates that seven resources appear to interact in dynamic, dialogic, and complex ways as experienced teachers set about constructing lessons that are goal-oriented, activity-driven, cohesive, and meaningful for both themselves and their students. Finally, the results demonstrate that experienced teachers integrate various material resources in the classroom that influence their talk; consequently, a language lesson can be regarded as both a process and a product that is highly multimodal, multimedial, and intertextual. The study concludes with implications for genre studies, classroom discourse studies, and second language teacher education, and with suggestions for future research.

The purpose of the present study is to expand our current understanding of second language classroom discourse by exploring how four English as a second language (ESL) teachers working in an intensive English program structurally organize classroom language lessons through the use of language; how students and teachers perceive the functions of the various stages in a lesson; how teachers prepare for their language lessons; and how various discourses and texts in this teaching context influence teachers‘ spoken discourse in the classroom. In order to carry out the exploratory study of language lessons, a multidimensional genre-oriented approach is utilized that is sensitive to both textual and contextual analyses of language lessons. The findings suggest that despite the spontaneous nature of classroom settings and sometimes improvised nature of classroom teaching, experienced ESL teachers have generated and internalized schemata of language lessons, which consists of a stable schematic structure and linguistic patterns that are recognizable by both teachers and students. However, rather than viewing a language lesson as a distinctive genre, the study suggests that it might be described more precisely as a sub-genre of the classroom discourse genre proper that shares broad communicative purposes with other classroom discourse sub-genres, although also maintaining its own distinct characteristics. Further, the analysis indicates that seven resources appear to interact in dynamic, dialogic, and complex ways as experienced teachers set about constructing lessons that are goal-oriented, activity-driven, cohesive, and meaningful for both themselves and their students. Finally, the results demonstrate that experienced teachers integrate various material resources in the classroom that influence their talk; consequently, a language lesson can be regarded as both a process and a product that is highly multimodal, multimedial, and intertextual. The study concludes with implications for genre studies, classroom discourse studies, and second language teacher education, and with suggestions for future research.

The thesis deals with the code choice in the language classroom, particularly with teaching Czech as a foreign language. This thesis is an excursion into contemporary teaching Czech as a foreign language and its main aim is to explore the role of the code choice in CFL teaching and find out the motives of this choice on the part of the teacher - whole thesis is therefore primarily concerned with teacher's code choice in the language classroom and with factors that influence the choice. This aim is realized with the use of several case studies that examine in detail the code choice in several courses of Czech for foreigners using participant observation, semi- structured interview and the results of previous similar studies are taken into account. In conclusion, the results of individual studies are compared and we tried to find out trends and key factors that could play an important role in the code choice in the language classroom. Key words : Czech as foreign language, classroom language communication, case study, teacher talk, code choice, mediating language

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / It has been noted by Lin (2013) that studies on multilingual talk, as illustrated by code switching in the classroom, have been repetitive and descriptive, and have for a while not been underpinned by substantially new or different questions (Lin, 2013:15). First, many of the studies in the literature have, for instance, concluded that there is a functional allocation of languages (FAL) in multilingual classroom teacher talk (e.g. Baker, 2012; Martin, 1996; Probyn, 2006, 2014; Jegede, 2012; Modupeola, 2013; Salami, 2008), such that language „a‟ is used for presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ is used for explanatory knowledge, and these claims have not been subjected to sustained scrutiny. Secondly, codeswitching and translanguaging increasingly have been the dominant and exclusive frameworks used, and this has limited the kinds of insights that can be obtained or the kinds of questions that can be posed. Thirdly, where the effects of multilingual teacher talk on students‟ understanding or knowledge are at all captured in studies, such effects have either been based on researcher intuition or have not been the object of sustained empirical demonstration. Fourthly, many studies have assumed merely that it is the configuration of languages that produces claimed effects of multilingual teacher talk, and attention has hardly been paid to repetition of content or to knowledge structure. Fifthly, it is not often the case that studies or findings are presented in a nuanced form that takes into account the possible effect of different subject types, school types or levels of study. Sixthly, and overall, many studies making claims on the effect of teacher‟s code-switching or trans-languaging on students‟ knowledge do not theoretically engage with knowledge, beyond the distinction between presentational and explanatory forms of knowledge, thus illustrating what Maton (2013) regards as “knowledge-blindness” (that is, the paradox of limited engagement with knowledge structures in pedagogical research making knowledge claims). As a result, little is known about how specific units of knowledge are encoded according to categories in a theory of knowledge, how knowledge encodings interface with languages, and how composite knowledge structures-language profiles can be visualised. This study draws on Legitimation Code Theory Semantic and Terminology Theory in order to investigate the interface of language and knowledge in multilingual teacher-talk in science and business studies classrooms in Yola, North-Eastern Nigeria. This focus should make it possible to answer questions such as the following which, though important, have not often been posed on account of the limited engagement in the research on classroom multilingualism with theories of knowledge: a) to what extent is it appropriate to claim that there is a functional allocation of language in multilingual teacher-talk (in which language „a‟ is used for so-called presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ for explanatory knowledge)?; b) what kinds of encodings of knowledge occur in a set of science and business studies lessons?; c) given documented visual patterns of knowledge dynamics emerging from recent research in the sociology of knowledge (e.g. semantic waves, semantic flatlines both high and low, downward shift and upward shift), (Maton: 2013, 2014a, 2014b), what knowledge profiles are observable and how does language use in multilingual teacher-talk map onto these patterns?; d) how are any observed differences in the composite knowledge-language profiles to be explained?; and e) what effects do various language-knowledge profiles have on students‟ understanding of the lesson and on their demonstration of their knowledge? Data for the study was derived from transcripts of audio-recorded multilingual teacher-talk in two subjects (integrated science and business studies) as taught in grades seven and nine in four secondary schools (two private and two public schools) in Yola, North-East Nigeria. Findings show, among others, that it is not always the case that the official classroom language (English) is used for introductory discourses, and the non-official classroom languages are used for explanatory discourses. Findings further reveal that it is not primarily the functional allocation of languages that explains perceptions or empirical claims of enhanced student understanding. We also observed that the number of content iterations, combined with knowledge structures, is an important factor that enhances or explains the performance of students. While this research has paid a lot of attention to teacher talk in the classrooms in two sites in Yola, North-East, Nigeria, where the use of Hausa and Fulfulde languages by the students is mainly in the spoken form, it would be interesting for future research to replicate this type of study in an environment where the non-official language of the classroom is perhaps used more frequently in reading and writing.

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The present study aimed to explore the culture specificity of student self-regulation and its supporting motivational attitudes. Specifically, it enquired about similarities and differences between Chilean and English 8 to 9 year-old students in terms of their expression of self-regulatory behaviours, the psychological factors underlying these behaviours, and the functionality of these behaviours for task performance. It also compared student adoption of achievement motivational attitudes as well as the functionality of these attitudes for investment of effort and self-regulatory activity between cultures. Finally, the role of classroom cultures for self-regulation was studied. In particular, it examined the effects of classrooms and the quality of teacher talk (teacher-to-student communicative interactions/demands), such as teacher ‘regulatory talk’ and ‘socio-motivational talk’, on student self-regulation. A quantitative approach to the analysis of qualitative data (i.e. videos of student behaviour engaged in 11 to 13 experimental tasks, semi-structured interviews, videoed literacy lessons) was adopted. Eight classrooms situated in different schools from Chile and England were part of the study. In total, 8 teachers and 49 students – one teacher and six to seven students per classroom – took active part in the study. Qualitative data was primarily analysed using observational scales (for student behaviour), thematic analysis (for interview data), as well as socio-cultural discourse analysis (for videoed lessons). Statistical techniques, such as Mann Whitney U test, Factor Analysis, Multinomial logistic regressions, and Multilevel regressions were then applied on numerical transformations of the data. Overall, results suggest that self-regulation and achievement motivational attitudes vary to important extents according to culture. Most interestingly, these varied between cultures not so much in terms of the degree to which children used or adopted them, but rather in terms of their functionality. Some key findings supporting this conclusion were: i) Strong similarities between English and Chilean children’s levels of self-regulatory behaviours; ii) substantial differences across country samples in relation to the psychological factors underlying the expression of specific self-regulatory behaviours; iii) the finding of evaluative actions being self-regulatory in England but not in Chile; iv) a higher variety of self-regulatory behaviours being predictive of task performance in England than in Chile; v) the fact that learned self-regulatory behaviours accounted for effects of effective metacognitive control on task performance in England but not Chile; vi) some important differences in the achievement motivational attitudes expressed by Chilean and English students; and vii) culture-specific functionalities of various achievement motivational attitudes with respect to student effort and self-regulatory behaviours. Moreover, results suggest that some aspects of children’s self-regulation and motivational attitudes develop as tools to adapt to classroom cultures, specifically to the learning interactions/demands socially afforded by teacher talk. Among key findings supporting this conclusion were: i) effects of classrooms on children’s cognitive, social, and motivational self-regulation behavioural strategies, and ii) clear effects of teacher ‘regulatory talk’ (e.g., teacher ‘self-regulatory talk’ predicting more planning and asking for clarifications in students) and ‘socio-motivational talk’ (e.g., teacher ‘talk against self-efficacy’ predicting higher dependency-oriented help-seeking in students) on those behaviours with respect to which classrooms were found to matter. Thus a theory about the culturally adaptive functionality (CAF) of self-regulation and motivational attitudes supporting self-regulation is developed throughout the thesis.