Iranian Foreign Language Teachers’ Power Dominancy and Classroom Discourse

Classroom discourse has long been the topic of investigation in the field of applied linguistics. The presence and the usage of discourse and its fundamental role in classroom have been investigated by a number of researchers. This study aims to observe whether teachers who are teaching English as a foreign language use certain types of discourse to confirm their dominancy and control in the classroom. To this aim, thirty classes with intermediate level students from three different institutes in Isfahan, Iran were selected and observed for one semester and the teacher-student conversations were recorded and transcribed. Prior to this phase, three teachers were selected randomly and a pilot study was conducted in order to check the practicality of the study. In the last phase, a retrospective think-aloud procedure was conducted with the teachers and their reflection on their communication with the learners was recorded as well. The frequency of the instances of discourse and the situational comments and sentences uttered by the teachers were calculated and the reliability of the results was ensured through chi-square test. The results showed that the teachers made use of specific discourse and sentences in the classroom in order to ascertain their dominancy and gain the control of the classroom.

Keywords:

Classroom discourse , Discourse , Retrospective think-aloud procedure , Think-aloud procedure , Teacher dominancy , Triangulation