Metatalk and metalinguistic knowledge: the interplay of procedural and declarative knowledge in the classroom discourse of first-language grammar teaching

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Routledge via the DOI in this record'High-quality talk' is a fundamental principle of many approaches to teaching grammar. However, relatively few studies have attempted to characterize this talk with attention to the ways in which classroom dialogue might engender metalinguistic thinking. This paper explores how the concepts of procedural and declarative metalinguistic knowledge may be applied to classroom discourse in order to identify the problems and potentials of grammatical 'Metatalk'. The data is drawn from observations of grammar for writing lessons in 17 classrooms across England. This opportunity sample was drawn from the intervention group of a randomized control trial funded by the Education Endowment Foundation all of whom were working within a pedagogical model which embeds attention to grammar as a resource for meaning-making within the teaching of writing. Given the impact of effective teacher-student dialogue on student learning, studies such as this are valuable for illuminating how classroom talk operates within the teaching of grammar for writing. The findings particularly reveal the role of teacherguided talk during collaborative writing activities in facilitating transfer between declarative and procedural metalinguistic knowledge.Education Endowment Foundatio

Titan: Earth-like on the outside, ocean world on the inside

Thanks to the Cassini-Huygens mission, Titan, the pale orange dot of Pioneer and Voyager encounters, has been revealed to be a dynamic, hydrologically shaped, organic-rich ocean world offering unparalleled opportunities to explore prebiotic chemistry. And while Cassini-Huygens revolutionized our understanding of each of the three "layers" of Titan-the atmosphere, the surface, and the interior-we are only beginning to hypothesize how these realms interact. In this paper, we summarize the current state of Titan knowledge and discuss how future exploration of Titan would address some of the next decade's most compelling planetary science questions. We also demonstrate why exploring Titan, both with and beyond the Dragonfly New Frontiers mission, is a necessary and complementary component of an Ocean Worlds Program that seeks to understand whether habitable environments exist elsewhere in our solar system

Let’s talk talk: Utilising metatalk for the development of productive collaborative dialogues

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.This paper focuses on the role of metatalk within the context of an interventional study which explored the development of secondary school students’ collaborative talk. The intervention utilised a collaborative talk framework, designed specifically for the study, as a pedagogical tool to support two types of metatalk: process and self-evaluative. This paper examines the role of this metatalk in developing students’ awareness of collaborative talk processes, and considers how metacognitive skills and self-regulation were encouraged in the process. Making connections between dialogic teaching, educational linguistics and self-regulation research, this study argues that metatalk should be a key feature of pedagogies seeking to develop educational dialogues between peers, and should be included as part of a repertoire of effective classroom talk.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and British Telecom (Grant number ES/H024026/1)

'All in favour, say aye!' Voting in pupils' collaborative talk.

ArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education on 30 January 2015], available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1358684X.2014.991223This paper draws on the findings of an Economic and Social Research Council and British Telecom-funded project which explored the teaching of collaborative talk in the secondary English classroom. During the analysis of the video data collected, voting was observed as a strategy in pupils’ collaborative decision-making. Converse to its democratic purpose, the vote was often initiated as a means of dominating or controlling the outcome of a collaborative task. Yet, some pupils challenged the use of the vote as their awareness of collaborative talk processes developed. In one group, the vote appeared to ‘scaffold’ the participation of a reluctant collaborator. Through the presentation of transcripts, this paper explores the nature and implications of the vote as used by pupils in collaborative talk. It contributes to understanding of pupils’ independent talk in the classroom and prompts consideration of the vote as a productive tool in pupils’ decision-making.ESRCBritish Teleco

Engaging Talk: One teacher's scaffolding of collaborative talk

ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.This paper reports on an ESRC and British Telecom funded study which explored the teaching of collaborative talk in the secondary English classroom. While research signals the crucial role of the teacher in promoting dialogic pedagogies, less specific attention has been given to how teacher discourse can shape the development of students’ collaborative dialogue. Through multiple data sources this paper will explore the discourse of one of two project teachers who implemented an intervention which, drawing on research in educational linguistics, emphasised the role of metatalk in developing students’ collaborative talk. In particular, it will examine how one teacher facilitated and modelled productive interaction, scaffolding students’ understanding and appropriation of the expectations and language of collaborative talk. This paper will argue that teachers must utilise and model the talk they promote, and will consider the communicative and interpersonal aspects of this scaffolding process. It will also contribute to the argument that the teacher’s role is central in the promotion and development of productive peer dialogue as a component of a repertoire of classroom talk

Working Talk: Developing a framework for the teaching of collaborative talk

Ruth Newman University of Exeter Graduate School of Education Heavitree Road Exeter United KingdomArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Research Papers in Education on 8 January 2016 available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02671522.2016.1106698This paper draws on the findings of an ESRC and British Telecom funded study which explored the teaching of collaborative talk. A teaching intervention was designed which adopted the principles of dialogic teaching, but which, drawing on educational linguistics, particularly emphasised the role of metatalk in developing students’ awareness of the interpersonal processes of collaborative talk. To facilitate the development of this metatalk, a framework was devised which described collaborative talk as a process of participating, understanding and managing. The research project was a rich qualitative study based in two secondary English classrooms in two different schools, capturing group interaction through video and audio data capture. 90 hours of synchronised audio and video data from 5 groups in each class were coded first deductively, informed by the framework for collaborative talk, and then inductively. Substantial episodes of talk were subsequently transcribed to illustrate themes which emerged through coding. Drawing on the findings, this paper will present transcripts from one group in each school to describe how the strands, participating, understanding and managing, appeared in students’ collaborative talk. It will illustrate how these strands may develop in talk over time, visible in the increased ‘attunement’ of students’ turns. It will explore how the framework facilitated the development of students’ collaborative and metatalk, and how it can be used to foster effective dialogic talk about language. The framework for collaborative talk represents an original contribution to research which conceptualizes effective educational peer dialogue, and its use as a scaffold for metatalk draws attention to the role of metalinguistic understanding in talk development.ESRCBritish Teleco

Talking grammatically: L1 adolescent metalinguistic reflection on writing

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.This study investigated the metalinguistic reflections of 12 students, aged 14–15 years, undertaking a unit of work focused on reading and writing non-fiction. The unit embedded contextualised grammar teaching into preparation for English Language examinations. Students were interviewed twice, with prompts to discuss a sample of argument text in interview one, and a sample of their own writing in interview two. The interviews and subsequent analysis drew on Gombert's taxonomy of metalinguistic understanding, focusing on metasemantic, metasyntactic and metatextual reflections, and probing students’ ability to link these to metapragmatic concerns. Similarly to previous studies, the findings suggest that students struggle to articulate the impact of metasyntactic choices; however, here it is suggested that this may be a particular artefact of the need for a specialised metalanguage for discussing syntax. Results also indicate a tendency to reify form-function relationships, and signal the potential benefit of using students’ own writing as a platform for exploring authorial choices. Finally, the study contributes to the theorisation of metalinguistic understanding by suggesting how declarative knowledge may emerge from procedural activity, with interviews scaffolding students’ ability to articulate what had initially been tacit language choices.This research was supported by Pearson UK

Science goals and new mission concepts for future exploration of Titan's atmosphere geology and habitability: Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander and DrONe explorer (POSEIDON)

In response to ESA Voyage 2050 announcement of opportunity, we propose an ambitious L-class mission to explore one of the most exciting bodies in the Solar System, Saturn largest moon Titan. Titan, a "world with two oceans", is an organic-rich body with interior-surface-atmosphere interactions that are comparable in complexity to the Earth. Titan is also one of the few places in the Solar System with habitability potential. Titan remarkable nature was only partly revealed by the Cassini-Huygens mission and still holds mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. The proposed mission concept POSEIDON (Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander DrONe explorer) would perform joint orbital and in situ investigations of Titan. It is designed to build on and exceed the scope and scientific/technological accomplishments of Cassini-Huygens, exploring Titan in ways that were not previously possible, in particular through full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time. In the proposed mission architecture, POSEIDON consists of two major elements: a spacecraft with a large set of instruments that would orbit Titan, preferably in a low-eccentricity polar orbit, and a suite of in situ investigation components, i.e. a lake lander, a "heavy" drone (possibly amphibious) and/or a fleet of mini-drones, dedicated to the exploration of the polar regions. The ideal arrival time at Titan would be slightly before the next northern Spring equinox (2039), as equinoxes are the most active periods to monitor still largely unknown atmospheric and surface seasonal changes. The exploration of Titan northern latitudes with an orbiter and in situ element(s) would be highly complementary with the upcoming NASA New Frontiers Dragonfly mission that will provide in situ exploration of Titan equatorial regions in the mid-2030s