Pauline Gibbons Boeken

Bridging Discources in the ESL Classroom is concerned with the nature of talk in multilingual classrooms. Examing the interactions between students learning in and through English as a second language and their teachers, this book identifies the patterns of discourse which support and enable both second language development and the learning of curriculum knowledge. These patterns are 'bridging discourses', combining the everyday language used by the student with the specialised language of the academic register. Drawing on second language acquisition research and systemic functional linguistic theory, in particular the work of Halliday and Vygotsky, Pauline Gibbons develops tools to view classroom talk through a powerful inter-disciplinary lens. Putting forward an innovative new theory of classroom discourse analysis, this book focuses on applying theory to practice. This is an invaluable resource for all teachers, researchers and students of edcuation. -- Provided by publisher

Children from language backgrounds other than English represent a quarter of our school population. This work has been written specifically for all teachers of children for whom English is a second language, although it should be equally helpful to teachers of English-speaking children.