Shaping spaces: Teachers’ orchestration of metatalk about written text

Abstract

This paper reports on the qualitative strand of a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) study which involved the implementation of a pedagogical intervention emphasising the relationship between linguistic choice and effect in written text. The intervention was delivered to all year 6 students (aged 10-11) in 55 English schools. Drawing on observational data of 17 lessons, each taught by a different teacher, the analysis presented here focuses on how metatalk – talk about writing - was utilised by teachers during the intervention to foster metalinguistic discussion about written text. The findings draw particular attention to: the way that metatalk about written text manifests in different forms and for different purposes; the particular complexities of metatalk about written text; and how metatalk about can be orchestrated in a way which supports the cumulative development of metalinguistic understanding about written text. This paper argues that students’ learning may hinge particularly on how teachers orchestrate metatalk repertoires to make connections between ideas and develop understandings in lessons.