ABSTRACT
Classrooms have been studied extensively in the past few years, and a number of their characteristics have been established as both socially determined and largely recurrent. In classroom environments, teachers and students may be seen as members of sociolinguistic contexts in which spoken language has social and pedagogical functions. The functions of classroom language are produced under typical discourse patterns of classroom communication systems (Cazden, 1988), in which the role of language extends beyond the communicating of propositional information, to the establishment and maintenance of relationships in the classroom. Furthermore, the generation of language input by means of classroom interaction is believed to favor language acquisition (Ellis, 1984, 1990; Krashen, 1982). Thus the language spoken in classrooms is not only linked to social and pedagogical aims; it is also “a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is conducive for learning” (Bygate, 1987, p. vii).
