The V-task discourse analysis

Currently, I am working on my module 4 essay for the University of Birmingham. My question is to do with the discourse analysis of a class, using Sinclair and Coulthard's Model. My transcriptions are done and I'm ready to start typing and analysing.

The discourse to do with a traditional classroom setting much outlined in Sinclair and Coulthard's model are pretty straight forward. The teacher asks a question, the student responds to the question and the teacher acknowledges the response. But the classroom lesson I have chosen to analyse is a lesson based on the V-task parameters.

I have found that to analyse my lesson based on their model is virtually impossible. For the following reasons, I'm running into panic state!

I virtually have no IRF exchanges. I don't ask my class questions, and if I do, it isn't for the purpose of extracting information. The students themselves ask questions to access the language they need and in most cases, as even outlined in Kumaravadivelu's book Beyond Methods, my role as a teacher is to make sure there are learning opportunities made for each student in the classroom based on their needs. So if a student asks me a question, more often than not, another student will answer, or I will redirect the question back to the class to create a more dynamic learning environment.
In my classroom discourse, with 5 people present (myself and 4 students) there are at least 2 conversations going on simultaneously. Students asking students, or students asking me with me redirecting. My role of a teacher now has become one of not teaching, but creating learning opportunities and opportunities for sharing.

My students have been studying plural forms. Their job was to design their own zoo, labeling all the animals and designing a layout for the zoo. They were to go home and draw the animals later.
Why I did this lesson;
1. I wanted them to create a zoo, based on the animals they wanted to put into the zoo. One of the students actually labeled his zoo 'My dangerous zoo' since he had a good variety of the more 'dangerous' animals.
2. I wanted the students to interact in the classroom, not go home and look up animals and write them out at home. I wanted them to share ideas, a student struggling to come up with animals for his/her own zoo, might get ideas from other students during interaction. The term for moment to moment learning in the classroom is microgenesis which from the interaction happening here, was happening.
3. I wanted the drawing to be done at home - why? so the students would have to remember the animals they wrote. One student wrote 'dolphins' and when he got home he couldn't read it. So he had to look it up again, in order to draw the picture of the dolphins. Reinforcement of the lesson.
4. The students needed to use plurals to create the zoo. A popular question from me was 'do you only have one monkey in your zoo?' with students realizing that -s needed to be added.
5. The variety of plural forms were addressed, adding an -s or an -es, and although this never came up, some animals the addition of -s or -es is sometimes not enough... wolf - wolves, sheep -sheep, but this was not important for this lesson,.
6. The most important part of this lesson that I need to point out, was every student was so excited about creating their zoo that they forgot about the English. Although they needed to use English to create the zoo and they needed to write, ask, converse, share ideas and so forth to come up with 10 animals for their zoo, they were more intent on creating a zoo that was their zoo, with the animals that they liked and wanted to use.

So with the lesson done and now transcribed (it really is a mess and I have no idea how to analyze it) I look back and watch the video, listen to the voices of the children and realize with a tear in my eye that these students really had a good lesson.

I wanted to name my essay 'V-task discourse analysis' but under the guidelines from the University of Birmingham, I cannot reference my previous essays and my previous essay was all on the parameters of the V-task and its workings. So I will call it something else and panic for the next two weeks on what to write.

Overall though, this kind of discourse analysis is useful for learning what actually happens in the classroom and discovering things we can do as teachers to change our roles to make learning in the classroom more student-centered and more enjoyable!