Simay Birce Cirit

Teachers’ Interactional Adjustments to Divergences in Whole-Class Talk: Insights from Linguistically Diverse Primary School Classrooms

This project investigates moments in classroom interaction where teachers’ communicative demands and learners’ responses diverge, particularly in linguistically diverse classrooms. These moments are conceptualized as divergences, defined as discrepancies in content, form, or linguistic and discursive structure between teacher demands and learner responses. Extending the concept of “breach” from Joint Action Theory in Didactics (Ligozat, 2023), the study examines how teachers respond to such divergences through interactional adjustments in order to re-establish meaning-making processes.

The divergence–adjustment relationship serves as an analytical lens for exploring how interactional alignment is disrupted and rebuilt through classroom talk, and how these realignments shape subject and language learning opportunities. The study adopts a qualitative and exploratory design grounded in Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Brousseau’s didactic contract.

Studies and degrees

01/2022 – 11/2025: PhD – DFG research training group “Subject-Specific Learning and Interaction in Elementary School” (INTERFACH)

Thesis Title: Interactional Adjustments of Teachers in Classroom Talk: Insights from Linguistically Diverse Primary School Classrooms

University of Kassel

2019 – 2021: M.A. studies, international joint-degree master’s programme in Sociolinguistics and Multilingualism

Thesis Title: Managing Multilingualism in the Turkish Educational System: Challenges and Solutions       

Vytautas Magnus University, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Stockholm University

2017: Semester abroad – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University, Frankfurt

2014 – 2018: B.Ed. English language teaching

Istanbul University

Professional experience

since 12/2025: Research assistant (Postdoc)- DFG research training group “Subject-Specific Learning and Interaction in Elementary School” (INTERFACH)

University of Kassel

01/2022 – 06/2025: Research assistant – DFG research training group “Subject-Specific Learning and Interaction in Elementary School” (INTERFACH)

University of Kassel

2018 – 2019: English teacher at a primary school – Canakkale, Türkiye

2017 – 2018: Teaching internship – Vefa High School, Istanbul, Türkiye

Cirit, S. B., Domenech, M. & Fischer, N. (accepted). Initiating and Sustaining Learning Opportunities through Classroom Talk in Linguistically Diverse Settings: The Case of Teachers’ Follow-up Moves. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik.