Speech Communication and Science Learning in the Classroom: A Sociocultural Approach

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the degree to which a “sociocultural approach to mediated action” is appropriate approach to understand the process of learning in science classrooms. First, we discuss the differences between the sociocultural approach and mainstream constructivism in terms of their respective theories and methods of science learning. Secondly, we outline its roots in ideas developed by L.S. Vygotsky and M.M. Bakhtin. Thirdly, to demonstrate the usefulness of Bakhtin’s ideas for understanding the process of science learning, we conducted an interaction analysis in a sixth-grade classroom. Date included videotapes, transcripts, and drawings of body arrangements. In the course of their interactions, teacher and students are ventriloquating the voices, social languages, and speech genres of their utterances each other. We conclude that the sociocultural approach to mediated action can provide a new perspective on science education in the same sense that we can discuss details of speech communication in the science classroom from this approach.