ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the classics in classroom discourse as well as the various approaches that have yielded critical insights into the nature of classroom discourse. It offers a sample of various approaches to classroom discourse: linguistics, sociolinguistics, critical discourse analysis, education and educational psychology, ethnography, language socialization, and sociocultural theory, highlighting the kinds of questions that have driven the different strands of work. Scholars who take a linguistic or applied linguistic approach typically use a coding scheme to specify the nature of classroom interaction and to answer questions such as whether learning occurs, what constitutes success in school, or what types of teacher talk support learning. While language socialization researchers have produced careful portrayals of learners varying trajectories of socialization into academic conventions and cultural values, (applied) linguists, educational psychologists, and sociocultural scholars have identified specific ways in which teacher talk might support student learning.
