Oral Discourse and Education examines spoken language as a field of study, looking at the various ways in which we can both theorise the place of talk in education, and examine the way talk is actually done in educational settings. Given the centrality of literacy-based practices in schools, a book focusing on talk brings quite different and important perspectives to the study of education. Talk is something that has all too often been devalued and taken for granted. What becomes evident throughout the papers included in this volume is that talk is of central importance in establishing identities and the cultures in which those identities are located. However, because we are unused to reflexively examining the way we talk, there is a serious disjuncture between what we believe talk should achieve and what can be seen to be achieved in actual talk in educational settings.
Anyone interested in teaching should read this book. Becoming more aware of the centrality of talk and what it achieves is important both for enabling us to find ways to bring our ideals more in line with our practices and for being able to recognise and reflect on the ways our talk can be achieving things quite other than what we intend. This book is relevant to teachers at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and for researchers interested in spoken language in educational contexts.

Section 1 Theorising Talk.- 1. Talking about Text and the Culture of Literacy.- 2. A Critical-Pragmatic Theory of Classroom Talk.- 3. A Sociocultural Perspective on Classroom Discourse.- 4. Challenging and Changing: Communicative Competence and the Classroom.- 5. Ethnomethodological Studies of Talk in Educational Settings.- 6. Poststructuralist Theory and Classroom Talk.- Section 2 Oral Language, Culture and Identity.- 7. Oral Language, Culture and Class.- 8. Conversational Patterns Across Gender, Class and Ethnicity: Implications for Classroom Discourse.- 9. Language Choice and Symbolic Domination.- 10. Teacher-Pupil Talk in Multi-Ethnic Classrooms.- 11. Critical Oracy and Education for Active Citizenship.- 12. The Construction of Gendered Identity through Play.- 13. The Construction of Gendered Identity through Classroom Talk.- 14. Narrative and the Shaping of Identity.- 15. The Construction of Social Competencies through Talk.- 16. The Acquisition of Communicative Competence amongst Children with Speech and Language Impairment.- Section 3 Oral Language and the Curriculum.- 17. Classroom Discourse for the Facilitation of Learning.- 18. Effective Educational Talk.- 19. Preconditions for Successful Small-Group Talk in the Classroom.- 20. Children's Collaborative Talk.- 21. Interaction Patterns in University Education.- 22. Children's Talk and Computers.- 23. The Use of Talk in Mathematics.- 24. Discourse and Conceptual Understanding in Science.- 25. Using Oral Discourse in Literary Studies.- Name Index.- Tables of Contents other Volumes.