Dialogic discussion as a platform for constructing knowledge: student-teachers’ interaction patterns and strategies in learning to teach English

Abstract Beginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to proportionally balance the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives and processes. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institution in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.