Being able to respond to and ask questions in teacher-fronted classroom talk is important for learning and assessment, as well as for student participation and social inclusion. About 8% of all students have a developmental language disorder and a subgroup even lack speech (Norbury et al., 2016). For those students, a speech-generating device (SGD) can be used to replace speech. SGDs provide students with enhanced opportunities to participate both in education and leisure time contexts. Despite the huge advantage that an SGD may offer, research shows that SGDs are seldom used in multiparty classroom talk. When they are used, a supportive environment is required, including for example teachers’ scaffolding practices (Tegler, Demmelmaier, Blom Johansson, & Norén, 2020).
The aim of this study is to generate knowledge on interactional practices, organizations, and vocabulary that facilitate student-initiated (Waring, 2011) SGD-mediated questions in teacher-fronted classroom interaction. Specifically, we are interested in SGD-mediated student questions that are not preceded by an invitation or prompt from the teacher.
The theoretical framework and methodology of ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) is used for detailed analysis of question design in multiparty interactions.
Method: Data comprise of 18 hrs of video recordings of multiparty classroom lessons in nine special schools in Sweden. Twenty-three non-speaking students and their classmates, teachers and assistants participated in the study.
Findings: The analysis shows that of the 233 SGD-mediated contributions that we identified in our data, 11 were student-initiated SGD-mediated questions. These questions were produced by three students. SGD-mediated interaction faces several challenges. First, the production time is prolonged compared to speech, which means that a contribution (e.g. an answer or a question) easily receives a sequentially misplaced position in the ongoing interaction, which may cause misunderstandings. Second, if the student is illiterate someone else has to choose and arrange the vocabulary (e.g. drawn pictures). Having a limited vocabulary increases the risk of producing ambiguous contributions. Against this backdrop, the results of our study are discussed in four parts: (1) the linguistic structure of the contributions, (2) the sequential organization of the contributions within ongoing classroom talk, (3) the contributions’ topical relation to other talk, and (4) their interactional functions.
Relevance to Nordic educational research: The study examines non-speaking students’ unsolicited SGD-mediated questions in multiparty classroom talk, which is sparsely studied. The study illustrates teachers’ challenges in promoting inclusive education and social inclusion for non-speaking students at the expense of progression and advancement. Furthermore, it contributes knowledge of how teachers with non-speaking students in the classroom, manage several dilemmas as they make “here and now” pedagogical judgements on inclusive practices.
References:
Norbury et al (2016). The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: evidence from a population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(11), 1247-1257.
Tegler et al (2020). Creating a Response Space in Multiparty Classroom Settings for Students using Eye-gaze Accessed Speech-Generating Devices. Augmentative and alternative communication, 36(4), 203-213.
Waring (2011). Learner initiatives and learning opportunities in the language classroom. Classroom discourse, 2(2), 201-218.
Oslo, Norway, 2023.