Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) developed a model of classroom discourse involving a series of ranks and levels arranged in hierarchical order. They found in the traditional native-speaker language school classroom, a structure of three-part exchanges: Initiation, Response, and Feedback, known as IRF. Teachers and pupils speak according to the very fixed perceptions of their roles and the talk could be seen to conform to highly structured sequences. According to them, the following is the typical classroom discourse sequences:
T: What’s the capital of Trance? (Initiation)
S: Paris. (Response)
T: Yes, Paris. That’s right. (Feedback)