Book Review: Investigating Classroom Discourse by Steve Walsh, 2006. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 188 ISBN 0415364698 (pbk)

It has been widely acknowledged that classroom interaction is crucial to the acquisition of a foreign language since it provides students with opportunities to practice their language skills and develop procedural knowledge, to interact with others and adjust themselves to their interlocutors, to negotiate meanings and modify their contributions (Ellis, 1994; Swain, 2005; van Lier, 1996). In order to describe, analyze and interpret the interaction and discursive patterns of the foreign language classroom a variety of methodological tools have been developed which enable quantitative as well as fine-grained qualitative analysis. Walsh’s book is, in the first instance, a contribution to the methodology of classroom research. The author discusses the advantages and limitations of a range of different research traditions (among them observation checklists, ethnographic approaches, introspection, action research, interaction, conversation and discourse analysis) in light of recent cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives on second language learning before presenting the instrument he designed: SETT (Self Evaluation of Teacher Talk). SETT is heavily influenced by conversation analysis and consists of a specific metalanguage and procedure that guide teachers through self-observation and analysis of classroom talk. Investigating Classroom Discourse is hence also a contribution to the field of teacher development and reflexive teaching. It is based on the assumption that the L2 classroom is a series of contexts co-constructed by teachers and learners in relation to specific institutional and pedagogical goals. Knowledge about its specificities, that is, the relationship between teacher talk, interaction and learning opportunities is thus crucial if teachers want to facilitate their students’ learning processes. The book is divided into seven chapters. The first three deal with the nature of foreign language learning in formal settings, the relationship between classroom interaction and learning and the procedures currently available for describing and analyzing classroom discourse. The author begins by introducing research on key features of L2 classroom communication, which mark the interaction as fundamentally distinct from most non-classroom talk. Walsh argues forcefully that despite the emphasis on the collaborative construction of classroom discourse as advanced by communicative and task-based approaches, the main responsibility for the quality and quantity of the communication in the classroom still lies with the teacher. He or she constructs the majority of turns, begins, frames and ends the interaction, holds the floor longer, selects students to respond and contribute, and so on. In addition, teachers also have to make an infinite number of intuitive, on-the-spot decisions in the complex and highly dynamic context of their classes, a further reason for Walsh to focus exclusively on teacher talk. The second chapter reviews the process of foreign language learning in the formal classroom context from the perspectives of interactionist and socio-cultural theories of education and learning. While both emphasize, albeit from different theoretical standpoints, the centrality of interaction and dialogue in SLA, the socio-cultural view stresses additionally the role of language as a tool in the construction of knowledge and the role of the teacher as an expert who raises students to achieve higher levels of (socially based and ratified) knowledge. After having established this theoretical framework, the author presents a number of alternative approaches available for investigating interaction in the L2 classroom in the BOOK R VIEWS