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2. A methodology would need to be based on the unique feature of L2 classroom interaction

There are a number of reasons, then, why a methodology for the description, analysis and evaluation of L2 classroom interaction would be desirable. It could be simplest, for example, to adapt an existing scheme of analysis by Sinclair and Coulthard's (1975) scheme for L1 classrooms:

The development in this (discourse analysis) tradition of a more systematic analysis of the entire discourse of classroom interaction, exemplified for L1 classrooms by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975), has yet to result in comprehensive analytical systems for the L2 classroom. (Chaudron, 1988, p. 14)

However I contend that although there are a number of competing systems for the analysis of discourse, none of them is able to incorporate the unique feature of L2 classroom interaction: the connection between the pedagogical purposes which underlie different classroom activities and the linguistic forms and patterns of interaction which result from those classroom activities.

The pedagogical purposes of the language classroom are distinguished from the history or geography or science classroom by their direct link to the linguistic forms and patterns of interaction produced. In a history or geography lesson the linguistic forms serve as a vehicle for the transmission of information-the focus is on the transactional message carried, and the linguistic forms themselves are relatively unimportant. In the L2 classroom, however, linguistic forms have a dual role. They can serve as a vehicle, but they can also be the focus and aim of the lesson itself. Long (1983, p. 9) states that "... second language classrooms differ from most others in that language is both the vehicle and object of instruction."

In the following (authentic) extracts we can see teachers imposing specific pedagogical purposes. The teacher then expects the learners to produce specific linguistic items or patterns of interaction as a result. In the first extract the teacher's pedagogical purposes are apparently to get the learner (via L2 prompts and non-verbal messages) to produce specific variations on a sequence of linguistic forms.