Why talk is important

Barnes, D. (2010). Why talk is important. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 9(2), 7-10.

Background

The author discusses the function of talk in learning in classrooms and distinguishes between talk that is a rehearsal of answers, ‘right answerism’, and talk that leads to students critically evaluating ideas presented to them.

Aims

The author argues that teachers should make space for exploratory talk in the classroom as this can deepen critical skills in students encouraged to reason and dialogue through a problem or task.

Sample

The writer looks at his own experience in teaching in the UK. He also comments on reported research.

Method

The writer discusses the role of talk in learning and how it can be encouraged.

Findings

The author asserts that students need to develop good critical learning behaviours to prepare for the world outside school. Students have to learn how to pose questions, raise problems, suggest preliminary hypotheses and explanations, evaluate examples that support or contradict an idea, connect new with old ideas and make personal connections with ideas. Developing a nuanced understanding of these ideas will allow them to apply them appropriately to new contexts.

The author contends that well-structured exploratory talk offers a safe place to try various thinking approaches towards understanding and reasoning through an issue or problem. Opportunities to talk their way into understanding offer the prospect of students discovering alternative explanations and judgements while attempting to solve problems. He proposes a lesson sequence in which teachers elicit prior knowledge from students, give input for interpretation and create space for students to grapple with new knowledge in the process of synthesising it with pre-existing beliefs or knowledge.

He contrasts UK/USA teaching approaches with those of Russia and France. In the former, the teacher tends to try to get the whole class involved in talk with the result that the discussion is limited. In the latter, the teacher involves one or two students in a detailed discussion that other students are expected to pay close attention to. The writer believes that the latter approach provides deeper discussions of the topics.

Implications

Barnes suggests that teachers model the oral inquiry process by asking probing questions of students to demonstrate how talk might be used to arrive at a more complex appreciation of the facets of an issue or problem. His suggestion implies the need for the re-culturing of students and teachers in their perception of “active learning” if they are to achieve higher levels of intellectual engagement.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost via OPAL.