Analyzing Teachers’ Vocabulary Instruction: The Power of the Third Turn in Teachers’ Talk

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Raising the Bar With the Third Turn: Discourse Tools That Encourage the Expansion of Student Reasoning

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ talk in whole-class discussions of academic vocabulary words and related ideas during implementation of the Word Generation (WG) curriculum (Snow, Lawrence, & White, 2009). This paper draws on data from a larger, semester-long study of the discourse and instructional practices of urban, middle school teachers as they implemented WG.
Research Framework
The link between students’ vocabulary knowledge and their success at reading comprehension and long-term academic achievement (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1991; NRP, 2000) has caused researchers to focus on instructional approaches that develop vocabulary knowledge (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002; Graves, 2006; Scott, 2005). In particular, classroom discussion holds promise as a productive context to develop students’ vocabulary knowledge (Stahl & Vancil, 1986; Beck, et al, 2002), but teachers’ skill at facilitating productive discussions varies widely (Adler, Rougle, Kaiser, & Caughlan, 2003).
Methodology
Data were drawn from the classrooms of two math teachers and included transcripts of audio- and video-recordings of teachers’ weekly WG lessons, collected during nine lessons (450 minutes of instruction). Additional data sources included field notes from six classroom observations and semi-structured teacher interviews. After coding at the level of teacher/student utterances, transcripts were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, to understand the nature of the talk during each lesson.
Results
The two teachers represented very different approaches to their vocabulary instruction, and these differences were most apparent in their uses of the third turn in dialogic exchanges with students. Whereas the first teacher responded with simple acknowledgements or evaluations of students’ ideas, the second used a three-part response: first repeating or revoicing a student’s utterance, then elaborating, and finally questioning, either by probing for additional explanation or posing a question to the class to continue the line of reasoning. These different approaches, characterized as either “knowledge display” or “knowledge building” created very different conditions for exploring words and concepts. Moreover, the second teacher’s strategic use of the third turn encouraged more widespread participation and engaged a broad cross section of students, even those who were reluctant or less skilled, thus creating shared resources for investigating words.
Importance
Findings provide insight into teachers’ varying instructional approaches and suggest ways that teachers can use the “third turn” to broaden and sustain productive discussions of content. Findings also suggest instructional frameworks that engage students in productive explorations of words and define instructional contexts conducive to students’ word learning.

Authors

• Evelyn Ford-Connors, Boston University

• Catherine O'Connor, Boston University