"Can I have a black marker pen?" Request sequences in Russian CLIL methodological instruction in primary education
Keywords:
classroom interaction, CLIL, conversation analysis, formulaic frame, request, RussianAbstract
The aim of my study is to examine the request sequences made by Finnish-speaking young
learners interacting in a CLIL classroom where the language of instruction is Russian. The
empirical data consists of videos of natural classroom interaction, recorded over a period
of two years. The data has been analyzed by the means of conversation analysis. Requests
are considered as adjacency pairs, where the first pair part is composed usually of a request
from the pupil, and the second pair part of approval or rejection from the teacher. The
theoretical framework consists of sociocultural and situational learning theories, which
emphasize cooperation, participation in interaction with the teacher and the peers, and the
long-term socialization of the learning community. The analyzed examples in the data show
that this is probably due to the internalization of the language agreement, meaning that the
pupils were required to perform their requests only in the target language. The data sets show
that the number of the requests in the target language increases even during the first year.
The data shows also that over time the students were using creatively the formulaic frames
provided by the teacher. All in all, the language-focused analysis of the classroom at a microlevel
provides a crucial information on how a language learning community provided with
authentic learning situations is built and how important the participation and the use of the
target language, even with little language skills, is to the language acquisition.
