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Ll and cultural Lackground, but teachers have difficulties in using the
children's Ll to facilitate the learning of the L2. Teachers nay find
methodologies and syllabi incongruent with their own conceptions of
language, teaching and learning; the rapid pace of change may have
created a cultural divide between them and their own community, with the
teacher identifying with the 'modern' versus the 'traditional' culture.
This is more evident in rural areas, and may prevent the appreciation and
the pedagogical use of the linguistic and cognitive competence children
had developed before entering school.
Knowing the 'ways of talking' of the children seems an appropriate focus
for teacher education in all multicultural settings, if one takes as a
basic assumption an Interactive model of language acquisition and
development (Veils,1981 and 1985>. Children develop their communicative
and cognitive competence interacting with peers and adults; in social
groups like the one considered in the study, children spend more time
with peers than with adults; however, the study focuses on adult-child
interaction because at school most of the communication in L2 is between
teacher and children, as the teacher is in a dominant position, being the
only competent speaker of L2.
The analysis of home talk has to permit the identification of features in
adult-child interaction that in turn would make it possible to find out
what discourse structures the pupils will recognize as familiar and
compatible with their expectations. For example: how do children and
adults contribute to the flow of conversation? How is interaction
sustained (mainly through question∕anwer exchanges or through other
means)? Vhat are the most common ways of adults asking for information
and explanation? Are clarification requests used often? Vhat type, and for
what purpose? How are they elaborated on? In what context are rhetorical
questions used?
The study intends to provide an example of how information on children's
out-of-school experience may be used in the classroom: in particular, how
the study of discourse patterns in Ll home conversations may explain the