ABSTRACT
Studying talk in the classroom can be difficult. Because those of us who can talk and hear easily spend so much time speaking and listening, it’s a little tricky to identify the many strands of talk – the purposes and functions that we use it for; the different audiences for talk; the effects of contexts on the way we speak and listen. Because talk is necessarily a thing of the moment, it’s difficult to capture; and when we do capture talk on tape, sometimes the very act of taping alters the context and so affects the talk itself. Then there remains the issue of how to judge progress in talk. What should teachers be doing to help children get better at talk? What does this imply? Some of the hottest educational issues are related to that question!
