Discourse analysis in Tamil classrooms using corpus data: A study of the acquisition and usage of standard spoken Tamil in Singapore Tamil classrooms [தரவு வங்கியைப் பயன்படுத்தித் தமிழ் வகுப்புகளில் சொல்லாடல் பகுப்பாய்வு: மாணவர் முகவரும் வகுப்பறை இடைவினையாடலும்]

This paper aims to examine how student agency affects the level of classroom interaction through discourse analysis in Tamil classrooms. This study is part of a larger research project that analyses language acquisition in Singapore Tamil classrooms. Before effective learning takes place, it is important for the students to feel that they are the key agents in their learning. They need to have a sense of comradeship in their classroom where they feel a sense of connectedness and feel empowered to develop their capacity in learning. This is only possible when teachers create a suitable learning environment where they are responsive to students’ voices and subsequently actions that follow (Wiliams, 2017). Student agency is critical in language learning and discourse analysis will enable one to study the interaction that takes place in a language classroom. This will facilitate the understanding of how the learning environment is structured and to what extent there is a capacity for student agency. This paper analyses the data collected from the Tamil classrooms under the research project (DEV03/SL15) (Seetha Lakshmi et al., 2015). Data included audio and video recordings that have been transcribed into Tamil and then translated into English. The preliminary findings of two Primary classroom data reveal that the level of classroom interaction is increased by student agency and teachers’ facilitation on sustained speaking.