A closer look at the interactional construction of choral responses in South African township schools

In order to better understand literacy practices in high poverty L2 contexts, we use a conversation analytic approach to study two forms of chorusing in Grade 3 classrooms in South African township schools: choral reading and choral answering. Based on more than 6 hours of video recorded classroom interaction, we show that choral reading aloud is initiated by explicit and implicit instructions, combined with intonational cues. Choral answering is initiated by yes/no questions, designedly incomplete utterances or known-answer questions, producing short answers. Teacher feedback in both forms is extremely limited. Choral practices risk limited individual student engagement and restrict development of language and cognitive skills. However, we also show that students demonstrate a high awareness of the subtleties of a variety of interactional “rules”. They are occasionally encouraged to produce their own answers and are capable of reading new pieces of text aloud, showing potential learning opportunities through classroom engagement.