SUMMARY

The study investigates the potential of teacher talk in enhancing learner capacity to negotiate learning, premised on a view of classroom interaction as guided construction of knowledge. It examines the extent to which levels of oracy – essentially, awareness of the language of instruction, and the ability to use it more effectively- can be raised by exposing teachers to an in-service distance education language-based course. The main research questions are: a. What are the effects of the course in classroom text and discourse on oracy in the high school classroom? b. How can the quality of classroom discourse be assessed in a relatively systematic and objective manner? With regard to the second question, an analytical framework was developed that defined three key constructs in terms of discourse acts, namely teacher dominance, teacher effectiveness and learner initiative, and these constructs formed the basis of the three hypotheses. Patterns of interaction in English, mathematics and geography classes during the first year of high school i