Interactional organization and pedagogic aims of reading aloud practices in L1 education

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the activity of reading aloud is as it occurs in and through interaction in L1-classrooms.  Our data consist of video-recorded classroom interaction in Finnish comprehensive schools (grade 6 with 12-year-old students). The method adopted is conversation analysis. This analysis encompasses reading aloud exercises with reference to genre, source of the text and recipients’ visual access or non-access to the text. According to our analysis, the oral reading of a text is used to create a shared reference point in classrooms in terms of allocating turns, emphasizing the importance of the content or ideology of the text, deepening the knowledge and motivation for learning, fostering writing skills, or merely to enjoy the text or to fill up lesson time. Our main objective is to offer new knowledge of oral reading as an interactional phenomenon and a pedagogic tool for developing literacy skills in a classroom setting.