Building a Classroom Discourse Community

A discourse community in the classroom fosters a collaborative environment where students feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, and engaging in meaningful discussions. This process is not instantaneous but evolves through a series of interrelated steps. Below, we delve into these steps in detail.

Step 1: Familiarity with and Among Students

The foundation of a strong classroom discourse community is built on familiarity. This involves not only the teacher getting to know the students but also encouraging students to become familiar with one another. Strategies to achieve this include:

Ice-Breaker Activities: Initiate the term with activities that help students introduce themselves and learn about their peers.
Group Work: Frequently incorporate group assignments and projects that require students to collaborate and communicate.
Personal Check-Ins: Regularly check in with students individually to understand their backgrounds, interests, and learning preferences.

Step 2: Emotive Contexts for Interaction

Creating emotive contexts for interaction is crucial for building a sense of belonging and emotional safety in the classroom. This step involves:

Creating a Welcoming Environment: Ensure that the classroom atmosphere is warm and inviting, where students feel valued and respected.
Encouraging Empathy: Promote activities and discussions that foster empathy among students, helping them understand and appreciate diverse perspectives.
Building Trust: Establish trust by being approachable, consistent, and fair in your interactions with students.

Step 3: Spontaneous Interaction / Chit-Chat

Spontaneous interaction, or informal chit-chat, plays a significant role in building a discourse community. It helps break down barriers and makes communication more natural and fluid. To encourage spontaneous interaction:

Allow Informal Conversations: Dedicate time for students to engage in casual conversations before or after class.
Facilitate Open Discussions: Create opportunities for students to discuss topics of interest that may not be directly related to the curriculum.
Be Approachable: Show willingness to engage in informal conversations with students, demonstrating that you are interested in their thoughts and experiences.

Step 4: Humor and Affective Harmony

Humor is a powerful tool in the classroom when used appropriately. It can break down barriers, reduce anxiety, and create a more relaxed and engaging learning environment. In fact, the motto of Parliamo italiano! Is “ridendo s’impara” that is, that laughing enhances the learning experience. We’ll be back with more PI-specific moments in a future blog, but for now let’s look at more general concepts.

Here’s how humor can be effectively integrated into building a discourse community:

Fostering a Positive Atmosphere: Using light-hearted humor can make the classroom environment more enjoyable and less intimidating. This encourages students to participate more freely in discussions without fear of judgment.
Building Relationships: Sharing a laugh can help build rapport between the teacher and students, as well as among the students themselves. This shared experience can strengthen the sense of community and make interactions more personable.
Enhancing Engagement: Humor can capture students’ attention. When students associate positive emotions with the classroom, they are more likely to engage actively in discourse.

Making Learning More Memorable: Humor helps to lower the students’ affective filters, thus they learn better. Associating a positive feeling (such as a shared laugh) to a language concept or function helps students to remember it for a longer time.
Encouraging Creativity: Humor often involves thinking outside the box (and perhaps deviating from a scripted lesson plan), which can inspire students to approach problems and discussions with a creative mindset. This can lead to richer and more varied classroom discourse.

While humor is beneficial, it is important to use it judiciously. The humor should always be inclusive and respectful, avoiding any comments or jokes that could alienate or offend any student.

Feedback and Follow-Up: Moving Beyond Evaluation

In traditional classroom settings, evaluation often takes the form of grades and assessments, which can sometimes hinder open communication and risk-taking in discourse. To build a true discourse community, the focus should shift from mere evaluation to constructive feedback and consistent follow-up. Here’s how this can be achieved:

Constructive Feedback: Instead of solely providing grades, offer detailed feedback that highlights strengths and areas for improvement. This feedback should be specific, actionable, and encouraging, helping students understand how they can develop their skills further.
Timeliness: Provide feedback promptly so that students can apply it while the material is still fresh in their minds.
Positivity: Frame feedback positively, focusing on what the student did well before addressing areas for improvement.
Dialogue: Encourage students to ask questions about the feedback and engage in a dialogue to clarify any doubts.
Ongoing Follow-Up: Regular follow-up is essential to ensure that feedback is being implemented and to support continuous improvement.
Check-Ins: Schedule regular one-on-one or small group check-ins to discuss progress, address concerns, and provide additional guidance.
Reflective Activities: Incorporate activities that prompt students to reflect

For more in-depth discussion on a positive discourse community, please refer to chapter 2 of Glisan, E., & Donato, R. (2017). Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High Leverage Teaching Practices. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

In our next blog, we’ll talk about certain features of Parliamo italiano! that underscore the communicative approach through authentic language and texts.