Classroom Discourse Analysis as a Tool for Reflective Practice: Focus on Form Approach

In recent decade, reflective practice of classroom discourse has become a key role in teaching English as a foreign language. The present study benefitted from conversation analytic perspective to qualitatively and interpretively examine the classroom discourse of the teacher-learner interaction with 11 upper-intermediate level in a private language institute in Ahvaz, Iran. The learners were provided with pedagogical tasks in order to encourage them to participate in classroom discussion while indirectly attracting their attention and guiding them toward the target grammar. The classroom talk was audio-taped to be analyzed through conversation analysis perspective, which was in line with taking the extracts of the learners’ and teacher’s interaction into account to see whether tasks paved the way for the learners to learn the target form through ‘focus on form’ approach. Qualitative findings and the learners’ extracts highlighted the benefits of using tasks in the classroom to teach grammar in the context of meaningful interaction. Moreover, it was found that classroom discourse analysis can be done as an action research for the teachers to have reflection on their classroom in practice by analyzing their talks. Therefore teachers can be benefited from the findings of this research to foster reflective practice in teaching.