Gender and Classroom Interaction: Examining A Female and A Male Teacher’s Moves Directed Towards Female and Male Students in Two EFL Classrooms in Turkey

Abstract

This article examines a female teacher’s and a male teacher’s interactions with female and male students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Lessons in two EFL classrooms in the preparatory school of a state university in Turkey, one classroom with a female teacher and the other with a male teacher, were observed and video-taped for two months. The lessons were transcribed and analysed using an adaptation of Sinclair and Coulthard’s (1975, 1992) Classroom Discourse Analysis Model. The findings of the study showed that in general there was not an equal distribution between teachers’ moves, both academic and nonacademic, directed to female and male students in either classroom. The results of the study are discussed in reference to relevant literature on gender and classroom interaction and the authors draw attention to pedagogical implications.

Keywords

• Gender and Classroom Interaction,Teacher-Student Interaction,In/Equality in the Classroom,EFL Classrooms in Turkey

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