Classroom discourse and power: insights into learner empowerment in L2 classroom

Abstract

Powerandrelationship in discourse community is an intriguing topic to study on. And classroom discourse community is a place where institutional talk takes place, which is different from some contexts creating informal communication. In this paper, author aims to explore the discourse and power relationship in L2 classroom so that insights into the issue of learner empowerment can be analyzed. The author draws upon conversation analytical tool to look into communication in a specific L2 classroom. Two predominant problems are found. (1) Effects of teachers’ dominance in teaching/learning, and (2) impediment of L2- only instruction seem to be salient. Finally, a succinct conclusion is made about the importance of learner empowerment and necessity to do classroom discourse analysis.