Grammatical and rhetorical reasoning in upper secondary students’ collaborative talk about a literary text

Abstract

This paper explores different talk types and characteristics of grammatical and rhetorical reflections in L1 students’ collaborative talk about a literary text (n = 12, aged 15–17). The data is drawn from an intervention of contextualized grammar teaching in Swedish upper secondary school. To illuminate different talk types and the characteristics of the grammatical and rhetorical reflections, a deductive and inductive analysis in NVivo was carried out. The findings partly confirm previous results concerning rules of thumb and grammatical misconceptions. The current study also indicates that there is a relationship between talk types and prompted questions, and the quality of grammatical and rhetorical reasoning. When students are trying to locate a grammatical concept, the talk type is mainly characterized as cumulative and disputational, whereas linking grammar and rhetoric is exploratory. This paper discusses explanations for these relationships along with strategies for teachers when facilitating and supporting the development of students’ metalinguistic understanding.