Education may be seen as a form of verbal communication. Opinions about the part language plays in pedagogical communication differ according to the emphasis placed on: (1) the teacher (i.e., language as a means of transferring knowledge, as in the traditional teacher-centered concept); (2) the students (or language as a means of learning); or (3) the communicative process itself (i.e., teaching and learning as communicative interaction or dialogue). Most recently, research on classroom communication, while still looking at teacher and student talk, has taken on a new perspective. This more process-centered approach, which studies classroom verbal interaction as a form of conversation, is realized through the ethnographic method. Ethnolinguistic research on educational discourse has begun to focus on underlying social norms, schemata created and signaled by participants, and systems governing verbal classroom interaction. Within the last category are studies of pedagogical actions expressed in language (structuring, soliciting, responding, reacting), of the transactions occurring in lessons, and of the eliciting of verbal exchanges. A 39-item bibliography is included. (MSE)