ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of classroom talk in developing a multiliterate person and discusses the factors that support and encourage the development of students' talk. It examines the importance of establishing a safe classroom where students feel confident to talk, and where a classroom climate that encourages the development of students talk has been created. The chapter discusses the concepts of monologic, exploratory and dialogic talk, and the part that the constructivist approach to teaching plays in the development of the different types of talk will be analysed. Two of the major themes of this chapter are to elaborate the concept of multiliteracies and multimodal texts, and to investigate classroom practices and teacher pedagogies. It also explores how classroom talk can support the development of multiliteracies and addresses both practices and pedagogies. The development of classroom talk relies on both teachers and students understanding the important part that it plays in learning.
