Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Method / 125

Questions in similar situations at school if and when the event is
recognized as tutorial from the discourse features. Teachers should
know the discourse patterns of tutorial events at home, and restrict
their use to similar situations (e.g. assessment), especially in the
first years of school.

This position seems principled, realistic, and capable of using
quantitative data in order to go beyond them ('working back and forth
between etic and emic units of analysis' - Erickson,1981:21). It
encourages the teacher to learn from the out-of-school experience of the
child and use it, not mechanically apply it, to improve his teaching.

In conclusion, if there are differences between the teaching∕learning
experiences outside and inside school,

... the solution is not necessarily to arrange a 'match'... the
existing successful systems mix, match, and sometimes Invent
novel educational activities. ... culture-sensitive pedagogy can
make a difference where it is possible to be explicit about
cultural patterns and there is not much cultural heterogeneity in
the classroom. <L.C.H.C.,1986:1055)

Different features of the child's home language have different degrees of
generalization for use in the classroom. Patterns of discourse can only
provide some general hints for the structure of teacher - pupils
interaction, for example, in large group discussions or in the
presentation of new material; but they are more directly relevant in
language lessons, particularly those aimed at the development of oral
skills and fluency, in small groups, or whenever the teacher needs to use
a text of 'genuine' language for further elaboration. For this reason, in
the present study the discourse structure of home conversations is
contrasted with that of the dialogues used in texbooks and in oral
language practice, while only few, general parallels are made between home
and classroom discourse.

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