The material summarizes and criticizes different approaches to classroom
language: insightful observation and coding schemes (pp. 16-26); defines
criteria for linguistic descriptions of discourse: descriptive categories should
be finite in number, relatable to data, comprehensive in coverage, and restricted in their possible sequential combinations (pp. 26-31); discusses
problems of transcription (pp. 32-3); discusses differences between
grammar and discourse (pp. 33-4); discusses the nature of teachers'
questions (pp. 34-9); and then presents a summary of Sinclair and
Coulthard's (1975) analysis of classroom discourse in enough detail to allow
students to analyse their own data (pp. 39-55). This analytic approach is
also the subject of an accompanying television programme by Willes.