"Elementary, my dear Watson!" is not a dictum that should apply in research on communication structures
Abstract
The author takes issue with the conception of Czech studies of classroom communication that are based primarily on the IRF/IRE communication structure. He presents readers with two claims: 1.
In many Czech works the choice of foreign researchers and interpretation of their opinions on the structure of teacher-pupils classroom communication is an over-simplification, and 2. The use of IRF/IRE structure as the main descriptive-analytical tool for investigation of classroom communication is reductionist with respect to the diversity of events that actually take place in classroom teaching.
First all he offers an account of how the results of the research of Sinclair, Coulthar and Mehan have been interpreted and applied in the Czech Republic. Then he characterises the empirical research studies conducted by staff of the Philosophical Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno.
He notes the methodological aspects of these studies and the conclusion to their monograph, in which it is claimed that most of the communication structures in the second stage of Czech basic schools start with a question from the teacher, continue with the response of the pupil and end with feedback from the teacher (the IRF/IRE communication structure). The polemic article ends with 11 questions that highlight the ways in which this research approach carries with it the risk of serious over-simplifi cation of real classroom communication.