Language, interaction, and culture at school. An overview

The chapter provides an overview of selected studies that, from the mid-twentieth century, have variously dealt with classroom language, interaction and culture. Moving from the recognition that schools represent (at least in western societies) a major site for children’s socialization into the adult world, several ethnographic accounts of how this process concretely take place in and through everyday classroom practices are presented and discussed. As the chapter illustrates, the focus on situated language use allows to appreciate how school is a lieu where the micro-macro dialectic emerges with particular evidence. Specifically, the chapter reports research dealing with (a) classroom’s typical interactional structures, (b) teachers’ and pupils’ communicative practices, and (c) the interactional competence needed to appropriately participate in classroom everyday activities. An appraisal of the challenges that this multifaceted research field is facing in contemporary societies concludes the article.