The Role of Classroom Discourse in Enhancing Content Learning in Sri Lankan Secondary Bilingual Classrooms.

This study investigates the role of classroom discourse,particularly teacher talk, in enhancing content learning in Sri Lankansecondary bilingual classrooms. It was conducted at a secondary schoolin the eastern part of Sri Lanka. It focuses on five discourse featuresidentified as critical for content development: scaffolding complexcontent, referential questions, subject-specific vocabulary, contentfeedback, and recontextualization. This study used a qualitativeapproach where six bilingual secondary-grade classes in Science,Geography, and Commerce, taught in English, were observed, audio-recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. Findings reveal thatscaffolding enables gradual comprehension of complex concepts whileother discourse strategies promoted critical thinking, conceptual clarity,connects abstract knowledge to familiar contexts, etc. Collectively,these strategies support deeper cognitive engagement and facilitatesubject mastery despite linguistic challenges. The study underscores theneed for targeted teacher training in discourse strategies to strengthenbilingual education in resource-constrained, linguistically diversecontexts.