Investigating the Initiation-Response-Feedback cycle from moves to discourse: A comparative study of Chinese and Australian English language classrooms

The Initiation Response Feedback (IRF) cycle is a ubiquitous, teacher-led discourse pattern in classroom interaction. However, with its restricted participation structure and tight teacher control, it also limits opportunities for student language use and learning. Research has investigated the functions of the IRF cycle in terms of specific discourse moves, in particular the pivotal function of the feedback move. However, few studies have examined the IRF cycle from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective as a discursive unit of interaction that functions as a pedagogical tool mediating language learning in classrooms. From this perspective, language learning in classrooms occurs through the collaborative use of discursive mediating tools such as the IRF cycle, underpinned by the interactional competence and cultural assumptions of participants. This study aims to explore how the IRF cycle functions as a mediating tool for language learning and can be used to increase language learning opportunities by developing participants’ classroom interactional competence (CIC) influencing patterns of classroom interaction. The study examines teachers’ use of the IRF cycle to promote language learning as part of their development of classroom interactional competence. The influence of participants’ cultural backgrounds on the local emergence of the IRF cycle is also considered from a macro level of culture. This study of Eight English language classrooms in northern China and Australia is conducted using a field-based qualitative approach to data collection and analysis, comprising classroom observations and discourse analysis. Classroom discourse patterns across the two sites are analysed and compared at three levels or units of analysis - the IRF, CIC and cultural frames. The findings show that effective use of the IRF cycle to achieve language learning goals expands students’ language learning opportunities through joint teacher-student appropriation of the IRF as a mediational tool and is crucially shaped by participants’ interactional resources and cultural assumptions. The study provides a rich picture of the dynamic co-construction of the IRF cycle within wider interactional and cultural frameworks. It furthers our understanding of the multi-layered, mediational potential of the IRF cycle and provides empirical evidence of the nature, function and effects of Vygotsky’s concept of mediation in language learning classrooms