Abstract
Classroom talk is typically asymmetric since teachers retain high authority for the information. Yet downgrading teacher authority is crucial for the education of children with special needs. The data involve teachers and children with primary language difficulties. Teacher topic initiations (e.g. ‘tell me about’) signal that the child has more authority for talking about the topic at hand. Topic invitations are strongly suited to the children’s involvement in decisions about topical content. When teachers correct the children’s grammar or phonology, without exposure, the children do not tend to produce the correct item; but when they expose the corrections the children do tend to produce the correct item. Finally, correction-initiations that target the location or the nature of the trouble generate more information from the children and their authority is increased.
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Radford, J. (2020). Increasing Learner Authority in the Classrooms of Children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs. In: Wilkinson, R., Rae, J.P., Rasmussen, G. (eds) Atypical Interaction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28799-3_10
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