Transforming Preservice L2 Teachers' Discursive Practice: Sites of Contention

• In Event: 14.043 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.043-16 - Exploring Classroom Discourse, Vocabulary, and Academic Language Use in Second Language Learning

Abstract

The increasingly critical role of discourse in students’ learning and development has resulted in efforts to make pre-service teachers conscious of their own discursive practices and the need to transform them, if necessary. This paper investigated pre-service teachers’ classroom discursive practices, the genesis of those practices, and the struggles that ensued in attempts to transform discursive practice. Practice Theory was used as a conceptual framework to understand how contextual features and previous experiences as learners constituted current discursive practices of second language teachers. Findings suggested that attempts to transform teachers’ classroom discursive practice must begin with understanding the genesis of these practices.

Authors

• Kristin Johnson Davin, Loyola University Chicago

• Richard Donato, University of Pittsburgh