When I saw this book on the recommended reading for one of
the MURE methodology course sessions, I was pleasantly surprised. I read the
book fifteen years ago for a previous Masters course and remembered the impact
it had on my thoughts about language learning and learning in general,
particularly as my son was just starting school at the time. Mercer’s book is
the result of his (and others’) research into the process of teaching and learning through talk. He analyses talk (mainly in the classroom) from the
perspective that in addition to being something individual, knowledge is shared through talk and talk is also used to solve problems and
create knowledge together with others.
Mercer describes the socio-cultural
approach to learning whereby language
is used as “a social mode of thinking” and knowledge is “socially constructed”.
He gives examples of the different types of talk (and how it can be analysed) that
take place in the classroom: how people learn with help from others, teachers talk,
how learners respond to teachers and student-student interaction. In the final
chapters of this extremely readable book, he presents his theory of how talk
guides the construction of knowledge.
I would recommend anyone interested in education research
who doesn’t have time to read the whole book to read chapter 5. This chapter
starts by considering the role of theory in education and the relationship
between theory and practice (this has been a common theme in our MURE course!).
As Mercer points out, theory is essential to any educational policy, but good theory must serve both researchers and
practitioners. He proposes that any
theory for explaining how talk is used to create knowledge must include the
concepts of “context” (everything that contributes to meaning of talk) and
“continuity” (themes talked about are recycled and revisited). He also
discusses Vygotsky’s “scaffolding” but he points out that “scaffolding” does not include all help given by teachers; some
help is just “help”. To be “scaffolding”, there must be “the provision of guidance and support which is increased or withdrawn
in response to the developing competence of the learner” (p75). Finally,
Mercer refers to the particular context of formal education as a result of the
inclusion of a curriculum. He argues that apart from the explicit aspect of
curriculum (facts and information), a fundamental role of education is to help
people acquire particular ways to use language. He refers to “discourse”, and
specifically “educational discourse”, exemplifying the concept with
Initiation-Response-Feedback exchanges, reformulation, repetition, elicitation,
etc. as constructs for analysis.
Mercer is still working in the field of what is now referred
to as “dialogic learning” and you can find out more in the following videos.
Another updated term used is “exploratory talk”; look here
for a ppt on SlideSharewhich briefly outlines many of the ideas in Mercer’s book.
Jackie Robbins
