Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom is concerned with the nature of talk in multilingual classrooms. Examining the interactions between students learning in and through English as a second language and their teachers, this book identifies the patterns of discourse which support and enable both second language development and the learning of curriculum knowledge. These patterns are 'bridging discourses', combining the everyday language used by the student with the specialised language of the academic register. Drawing on second language acquisition research and systemic functional linguistic theory, in particular the work of Halliday and Vygotsky, Pauline Gibbons develops tools to view classroom talk through a powerful interdisciplinary lens. Putting forward an innovative new theory of classroom discourse analysis, this book focuses on applying theory to practice. This is an invaluable resource for all teachers, researchers and students of linguistics and education.

"Bridging Discourses in the ESL Classroom" examines the interactions between learners and teachers in a content-based classroom. It aims to identify patterns of discourse which support both second language development and curriculum learning, and the pedagogical contexts in which they occur. These interactional patterns are bridging discourses in that they build on the everyday language and prior experiences of the student in the process of developing the specialised academic registers of school. The study examines the use of these bridging discourses in two case study classrooms to show how they offer affordances for learning. This book puts forward an innovative new approach to the analysis of classroom discourse. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics and sociocultural theory, it argues that the significance of classroom talk for second language development can only be understood when it is examined within its situational, historical and sociocultural context. The book is recommended for academics and postgraduates researching applied linguistics and education.