The classroom offers a domain full of potential research opportunities. This thesis examines a certain type of educational occurrence, the remedial reading lesson, within the context of the American Science Research Associates (SRA) reading program.
This area has not previously been explored using the approach of Ethnomethodology and its associate research tool, Conversation Analysis (CA).
Working from transcribed data drawn from over thirty hours ofremedial reading
lessons, the principal outcomes of the study are as follows: Through discussion and critique of previous ethnomethodological analyses of classroom talk, it is proposed that some publicised, generalist frameworks are inadequate as they stand when applied to the talk-in-interaction that occurs within the remedial reading lesson. Also, new formats are suggested to account for the interaction that takes place between teacher and pupils. An increased understanding also arises of how remedial reading is a socially organised phenomenon that is procedurally and locally produced by the parties in their talk.
Initially, the subject of Spelling is highlighted as a key activity due to the significant amount oflesson time it acquired, thus producing significant quantities of data for analysis. This uncovered the methods used by both the teacher and pupils to interactionally achieve spelling within the context of these remedial reading lessons.
The American origin of the SRA reading series leads to interesting consequences.
The analysis presented in chapter four addresses the methods used by both the teacher and pupils to counteract the consequences caused by the occurrence of alien, Americanised, language within the SRA texts. The objectives are to ensure the preservation of both the reading flow and the meaning of the story as a whole.
Another significant finding in the thesis identifies teachers' responses to pupils' talk within the context of Recipient Design, specifically describing those responses that have been uniquely designed to allow the best outcome to be achieved for children with differing reading capabilities. The analysis uncovers the teacher's use of recipient designed talk when evaluating the differing ability levels pupils, applying knowledge of the pupils' previous performances to their current reading attempts.
Finally, the topic of Evaluation and more significantly the evaluative nature of the
teacher's talk permitted publicised ethnomethodological studies to be critiqued and new claims to be made. The findings of chapters seven and eight reveal the
complexity of evaluations in a remedial reading lesson and indicate that various other components such as corrections, prompts, pauses and acknowledgement tokens are commonly included in the one-turn feedback format.
Through detailed analysis of the data, the socially organised nature of the remedial reading lesson has been demonstrated and provides an extension of
ethnomethodological research into locally organised accomplishments of educational practice.