A redefinition of "task" is presented in terms of a situated ethnomethodological perspective. The "situation," which is the focal point of this article, is a series of reading lessons in a third-grade classroom. My aim is to suggest that the ways in which the basic Initiation-Response-Feedback sequence is expanded may be task specific. I describe, analyze, and provide empirical examples of expanded Initiation-Response-Feedback formats in which I note that expansions of the format might be related to task needs.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Analyses of classroom discourse usually focus on formulating the structures of talk between teachers and students. Moving beyond this focus on structure, this paper will illustrate how discourse structures can be analyzed to explicate the ways in which they facilitate the accomplishment of pedagogic tasks. I examine a variation of the familiar question-answer-comment discourse format which involves expansions of the basic structure. These expansions have positive interactional and pedagogic functions and are directly related to the task at hand.
I. BACKGROUND
A. The Classroom as Data My concern, from an ethnomethodological version of the sociolinguistic tradition, is to illuminate how structures of classroom events can function in relatively general, but task-specific, interactions.
B. Classroom Discourse 1. Initiation-Response-Feedback
The basic structure of teacher-student interaction (classroom discourse) often occurs in a sequence consisting of question-answer-comment, or more gener-Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to James Heap, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,