Prosody has been described as the music of speech. The term corresponds to our common sense idea of ‘tone of voice’ and refers features such as intonation, loudness, and pace of speech. Prosody is integral to spoken communication and conveys a surplus of meaning beyond what is articulated through the words alone (vocabulary and syntax). Research shows that speakers use prosody for a number of communicative purposes, such as to express their constantly-shifting emotional stance towards the interaction-in-progress, for example the degree of enthusiasm or interest they feel for the current topic of discussion. Speakers show acute sensitivity to one another’s prosody in spontaneous dialogue and use prosody as a resource to convey subtle nuances of expression; for example, when conversation is flowing smoothly, there tends to be a regular rhythm of stressed syllables which is maintained across turns by different speakers, and conversely, a breakdown in this rhythm often signals a difficulty or difference of perspective which needs to be negotiated. There is a well-established tradition of research into classroom discourse, the language used by teachers and school students in lessons. This has demonstrated the pervasive presence of certain typical features of interaction in this context, such as the Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE) sequence which constitutes the prototypical teaching exchange. However, to date there are few studies which specifically investigate the prosodic features of speech in this context. A pilot study by the first author of a secondary English lesson in the UK has identified ‘prosodic orientation’ – in which the teacher echoes a student utterance and matches its intonation – as a means of affirming the value of student-initiated contributions to whole-class discussion. However, the existing studies are small-scale and exploratory rather than systematic or conclusive, and our understanding of the contribution of prosody to the degree of shared understanding achieved in teacher-student dialogue remains limited. The present study is designed to make good that lack. The study addresses the following questions: 1. How does the prosody of teacher-student dialogue indicate the degree of mutual understanding achieved during episodes of whole-class discussion? (a) To what extent do teachers model the properties of exploratory talk in the prosody of their speech? (b) Does the flow of prosody across turns indicate that teachers and students have achieved a shared understanding at the local level? (c) How far do teachers and students exploit prosody to collaborate in the production of joint utterances?

We made a video recording of teacher-led whole class discussion in an English lesson in year 10, using a video camera and microphone mounted on a tripod positioned at the side of the room. We imported the recording into Transana for transcription and analysis. Transana is a purpose-built software program designed to assist in the qualitative analysis of audio-video data. We selected episodes for detailed transcription and mark-up by means of theoretical sampling. We transcribed these episodes using the conventions of Conversation Analysis, paying particular attention to speech prosody (e.g. marked changes in pitch, loudness and volume). We interpreted these hearable manifestations of prosodic communication in the classroom with reference to the findings of previous research on the function of prosody in other contexts, e.g. where the teacher speaks with slow tempo, frequent pauses and restarts, this can be seen as modelling the tentative, exploratory quality of ‘thinking aloud’.

Our emerging findings suggest that prosody lends coherence to teacher-student dialogue, indicates the level of learner engagement with the topic, and signals the degree of mutual understanding achieved between teacher and students. The tone of voice used by the teacher can reveal the degree of enthusiasm with which a student contribution is received. It also indicates the extent to which the teacher is determined to ‘stick to the script’ or is prepared to explore unexpected contributions and incorporate them into the ongoing flow of classroom dialogue. The conclusions are pertinent to the stress on the importance of developing pupils’ communication skills in current education policy. They also enhance our understanding of teaching as a form of structured collective improvisation and suggest ways in which teachers can use prosody as a communicative resource to improve the practice of classroom discussion.