Dialogic Teaching: Boosting Learner Agency in English Language Teaching (ELT) Classrooms

Abstract

This study explores how Bakhtin’s dialogism is employed to design a dialogical model that helps promote learner agency in language learning classrooms. Dialogism implies that human discourse is essentially interactive and that individuals construct their understanding in a constant exchange of utterances. The study promotes recognition of individual differences and the dynamic nature of learning in dialogical educational models and shows how active learning outpaces rigid educational policies. It proposes incorporating Bakhtin's dialogism into second language learning to counter conventional monologue-based teaching practices. In this context, learners are encouraged to take ownership of their own learning and construct knowledge through effective dialogue and critical inquiry. The exploratory inquiry involved a mixed-method design to gather data, including structured interviews with 23 teachers and detailed class observations of 18 teachers in the Kurdistan Region. Thematic analysis of observation and transcript data, segmented on a spreadsheet, involved in-depth qualitative analysis, coding and categorization.  The results revealed five challenges teachers face in dialogic classrooms as well as four main strategies teachers use to enhance student-learner agency.  This study promotes a seismic shift in educational attitudes about language learning and highlights a balanced re-distribution of responsibility among various educational stakeholders. The unique culture of each classroom needs to foster learner agency so that learners invest their attention in learning. The study suggests that the dialogical model is integral to personal evolution and identity development, working alongside factors like beliefs and talents.