Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning

When Courtney Cazden wrote Classroom Discourse, she provided such a cogent picture of what the research tells us about classroom language that the book quickly became a classic and shaped an entire field of study. Although other books since have addressed classroom language, none has matched Cazden's scope and vision.

Now, thirteen years later, we've witnessed such significant changes in social and intellectual life that the subject of classroom discourse is more important than ever. So Cazden has revisited her classic text and integrated current perspectives and research. New features include:

• a new rationale for the importance of student-teacher talk: the importance of oral as well as written communication skills in today's occupations and current conceptions of knowledge and the way it is acquired
• rich new examples of talk in K-12 classroomsmath as well as language artswith transcriptions and analyses
• new findings from teacher researchers as well as university researchers
• new emphasis on achieving greater equity in what students learn
• new material on the kind of interactions computers offer
• new section on learning new forms of discourse as a significant educational goal for all students.

Readers will emerge from the book with a better understanding of the significance of quality teacher-student talk and some of the most important research and researchers.

Courtney Cazden is the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education Emerita at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An international specialist in child language and education, she is known professionally as a psychologist, educational anthropologist, and applied linguist. In her teaching and research, she integrates these scholarly perspectives with her experience as a former primary school teacher.