CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CLASSROOM DISCOURSE

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
AREA OF INVESTIGATION

The study falls under the broad area of conversational analysis. Conversational analysis has

been considered as the study of talk-in-interaction. Paula (2017) notes that, conversational

analysis make skills and competences visible. It has been considered to be more effective in

social scenes where conversations are considered as the normal social order of the society.

Through time, conversational analysis has been identified to be applicable in different

contexts where human interaction takes place within a consensus and where people share the

same norms and expectations. This has developed to the consideration of conversational

analysis in the education system. In this case, the researcher focuses on the activities between

young children and their teachers at Morning Glory Pre-School in Mt Pleasent as knowledge

is shared through everyday activities and interaction. The researcher will manage to study the

skills and competences embedded in students at an early stage through looking at how the

tenets of conversational analysis are used in the education system and then examine their

relevance to classroom teaching and learning.

The dramatic changes over recent years have necessitated the need for children to be taught

in learning environments that encourage critical thinking, creativity, problem solving,

communication, collaboration, global awareness and social responsibility (Reinen 2015). This

has been enhanced by the new Curriculum Framework of Zimbabwe which emphasises on

the development of strong knowledge at the expense of critical skills and competencies. It

argues for the development of students who are knowledgeable, can think critically,

creatively and have leadership skills including communicative competence. The study

considers conversational analysis in Early Childhood education as an effective methodology

to analyse Early Childhood classroom interactions. It also looks at how the tenets of

conversational analysis are used in the education system specifically Early Childhood

classrooms in enhancing the learning and teaching process..

OBJECTIVES
The overarching objective for this study is to

(i) Identify the tenets of CA used in classroom interactions.

(ii) Explain how these tenets are used.

(iii) Examine the relevance of CA in teaching and learning

The research questions provide a guide to the study of conversational analysis in Early

Childhood Education.

(i)Which tenets of conversational analysis are used in the classroom?

ii) How are the tenets used ?

Iii) How does CA tenets contribute to teaching and learning goals?

1.2: JUSTIFICATION
The concept of teaching and learning has been practiced since time in memorial. Through

interactions children gain knowledge in early childhood education which might be seen as not

serious. Reinen (2015) argues that teachers must learn to speak the children’s language and

become conversant with the technology that comes naturally to the young. Reinen (2015)

identifies the significance of tailoring learning experiences to be able to differentiate among

the individual’s needs and provide specific feedback frequently as well as ample time for
self-esteem. Through conversational analysis, the researcher analyses the discourse used in

Early Childhood Education with the intention of giving knowledge and expected qualities to

the children. It therefore examines the contribution of conversational analysis tenets to the

achievement of the goals of education.

METHODOLOGY

The researcher will use the non-participant observation where a notebook and a pen are used

to extract the tenets of conversational analysis that is used in the classroom setting. The

notebook will also be used to write facts about how the tenets of conversational analysis are

used in interaction between the teacher and students or students with other students. An audio

recorder will also be used to capture some other conversations that could be missed by the

researcher whilst noting other important concepts.

The researcher will then categorise (code) the data depending on the patterns of the

conversational analysis patterns. The data is then described to uncover the use of

conversational analysis in the educational system in the context of junior students at a pre-

school. The researcher will then explain how the concept of conversational analysis can be

considered as contribution to the teaching and learning of young children in a classroom.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

This chapter will review relevant literature on conversational analysis in the educational

system and in early childhood education to be precise. The researcher will look at the

thematic and methodological aspects of the literature by researchers in the field of early

childhood education.

Literature review

Paula (2017) researched on the various approaches (discourse analysis, content analysis and

systematic observations) that can be used in the analysis of classroom interactions in

educational research and argued for the use of conversational analysis as an effective

approach to the study of these interactions. The study explores the possibilities of

conversational analysis in terms of offering a new perspective of classroom interactions. The

researcher argues that conversational analysis offers a way of showing participants’ own

interpretations of each other’s contribution. In the study the researcher reveals the

characteristics of classroom talk-in-interaction which include Initiation-Response-Feedback

(Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975) and Initiation-Response-evaluation (Mercer, 1995 and Mehan

1979). This study considers the effectiveness of conversational analysis in studying

interactions between students and teachers or students to students in a classroom setting as it

identifies a classroom setting as a social setting which can only make skills and competence

visible.
Gunnarsdottir and Bateman (2017) states that early experiences of children have a great

influence to their future lives and their lives in the here and now. The researchers argues that

the analysis of the details of toddler conversations enables one to discover the complexities

and social capabilities of toddlers and what is important to them including how teachers can

support and empower them. The study also examines how the use of conversational analysis

can be beneficial when researching the social lives of toddlers in early education and care

(ECSC) settings including how it deepens our understanding of the subject and give new

knowledge on the quality of the care and education received in the setting. The current study

considers the relevance of the study of early childhood education activities using

conversational analysis in the Early Childhood Education system in enhancing knowledge

and expected skills to the students.

Batman ( 2016) looked at how teaching and learning are jointly accomplished during play

episodes, disputes, managing illness and talking about the environment in early childhood

development using conversational analysis. The study demonstrates the details of teaching

and learning as knowledge is shared throughout everyday activities. It also explores the

means by which knowledge is transferred and episodes constructed by participants shedding

light on the production of social order, communication of knowledge and how proffessional

and relational identity are made relevant in interaction. The researcher used conversational

analysis as a ethno-methodological approach to the study of interactions in early childhood

development. Ethnomethodology was developed by Garfinkel (1950) as an approach in

sociology that focuses on the way people as rational actors make sense of their everyday

world by employing practical reasoning rather than formal logic. Although this study will

consider conversational analysis in early childhood development, it will look at the relevance

of conversational analysis in early childhood development in the achievement of the goals of

education.
Batman (2017) furthered the studies of childhood development by demostrating that

conversational analysis makes one to hear the children’s voices. The researcher demostrates

the usefulness to hear children’ voices in early childhood education research, pedagogy and

children’s trauma talk and cross culture interactions in education contexts. The research is

also grounded on the ethnomethodological research which is argued to help in gaining access

to children ‘s social interactions which can be unnoticed. Using children of Two and half

years to four, the researcher shows how conversational analysis support researchers and

teachers to realise the children’s contributions to make their everyday lives competent and

capable citizens. The current study considers children’s voices in education and acknowledge

its contribution to the development of the lives of children which is an aspect embedded in

the New Curriculum of Zimbabwe.

Church, Paatsch and Toe (2017) in studying conversations between children noted the

differences in pragamatic abilities between children who have cochlear implants and hearing

peers. The reasearcher used conversational analysis on ten children in a ten minutes

comnversation. The researchers argues that conversational analysis provides insights into

interactional troubles not evident in measures of number of turns request for clarification and

topic initiation. The study also highlights the interactional costs of initiating repair and

demostrates that not doing repair cause breakdown. Although the current study observes the

differences in pragmatic abilities in students, not considering the deaf students only, the

researcher the use of repair as an important aspect in interactions as it enhances

understanding between speakers. The researcher also argues that the use of repair in the

education system makes children to understand better and bence manage to have knowledge

essential in the development of their future.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Bateman, A. (2016). Conversational Analysis and Early Childhood Education. 1st ed.
Routledge. London.

Bateman, A. (2017). Hearing the Voices Through Conversational Analysis Aproach.

Routledge. London

Church, A. (2007). Conversational Analysis in Early Childhood Research. Journal of

Australian Research in Early Childhood Education. 14(2) 1-12

Church, A, Paatsch, L and Toe, D. (2017). Some Trouble with Repair: Conversations between
Children with Cochler implants and hearing peers. University of Melbourne, St Parkville.
Astralia.

Gunnarsdottir,B and Bateman A. 2017) Todder Agency and Conversational analysis. Vol 21.
http://dx.doi.org/.10.18296/ecf.0030

Paula, B. (2017). The study of Classroom Interaction: An arguement for the use of
Conversational Analysis. University of East London.
Reinen, B. K. (2015). Early Childhood D
elopment.https://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/blog/six strategies for 21 century early
childhood teachers