Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis

As the study of language in L2 classrooms is a very important branch of discourse analysis, it has received much research attention since 1970s. However, the studies that have been conducted so far have not exhausted this area of investigation. Most of the previous research has focused on the linguistic features only. In recent years, more and more researchers began to realize the importance of analyzing social and cultural meanings that frame the production and interpretation of the classroom discourse. With this new idea, the present study tries to make a thorough discourse analysis with a critical point of view on a foreign teacher's oral English class in China with both micro- and macro- perspectives included. Adopting Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA approach, the analysis is conducted in three stages: description of the textual features, interpretation of both text and context, and explanation at institutional and sociocultural levels.The discourse of a completely transcribed lesson of this foreign teacher is analyzed. The findings indicate that (1)The power relations embodied in the classroom discourse are influenced by the dominant ideologies in the society. (2) The teacher's intension of mitigating the power relations through discourse is influenced by her own culture. (3) Students' silence can largely be explained by the Chinese culture. (4) Students' active response can be linked with their social needs, while their passive response can be considered as a kind of resistance against the teacher's ignorance of their needs. (5) The mismatches between the teacher and students result from cultural difference and the teacher's partiality to her own culture.This study concludes that classroom discourse is constructed, motivated and determined by the social, cultural, and historical factors. Students' language needs are closely linked with their social needs. Language teachers, especially foreign teachers in China, cannot ignore the Chinese sociocultural reality that shapes the classroom discourse.