Edward Leggatt
Contents
1 Acknowledgements
2 Introduction
3 Methodology
4 Analysis Examination of Findings
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices
Acknowledgements
A thank you to the Students and teachers who allowed me to record and analyse their classroom shenanigans, and an especially large thank you to JuJu, who I’m sure will read this and ruthlessly edit this thanks out.
Introduction
The focus of my investigation is the language used within the classroom and the interactions between students and teachers within a classroom environment. Ultimately, I want my investigation to help people understand how classroom interactions work, and what the best way to engage and educate the students is. To achieve this, I am viewing my transcripts with the theories put forward by Skinner on education, as well as the Gricean maxims and other modern language theorists.
My interest in this is due to me wanting to become a teacher, and when presented with this investigation I immediately wanted to do something that could potentially benefit me personally. So in order to carry this out, I decided to analyse the language relationships within a classroom, at the level of education which I want to teach.
I am basing my investigation on educational theories proposed in B.F. Skinner’s ‘The technology of Teaching’. His theories were universally accepted in educational institutions and this implemented in standard procedure within the teaching environment. My aim is to observe several teaching sessions in a college of Further Education and analyse the language used, specifically focusing on lexical and grammatical choices made by the teacher in order to engage students, I will apply the theories put forwards by Paul Grice; the Maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner, to see if they are adhered to or flouted within a modern classroom setting.
However, while