Turn‐Allocation in Lessons with North American and Puerto Rican Students: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This article presents an analysis and comparison of the same participation structure, teacher‐directed whole group lessons, in two third‐grade classrooms with linguistically and culturally different students. Mehan's (1979) model of lesson structure was used to analyze the turn‐allocation procedure in lessons constructed by an Anglo‐American teacher and students in Chicago, Illinois, and those of a Puerto Rican teacher and students in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. While the model very accurately explained the turn‐allocation process that operated in the classroom where English was spoken, it was less precise in explaining how the Puerto Rican teacher and students allocated turns during lessons. The results of this study, which demonstrate that the participation structures in the two classes were different, are discussed in terms of their implications for the education of Puerto Rican students in classrooms on the mainland where their classroom discourse patterns might not be understood.