Abstract

Within the framework of a larger investigation that approaches the argumentative verbal interaction in the classroom, the objective of this article is to describe the argumentative structure of this discursive practice and to characterize some aspects of both the students' and the professor's linguistic behaviour as participants of a collective discussion. We have registered three classes of Philosophy and Psychology of the third year of high school at the city of Viña del Mar. This analysis was made from the semiodiscursive perspective, thus have valued the forms of intervention based on their contribution to the development of the discussion within the framework of a specific situation of communication. This investigation shows that the procedures of followed analysis allow to characterize the structure and the roles of the participants in a collective discussion. Furthermore, the analysis model facilitates the understanding of the strategies that the professor, in his role as the articulator of the interaction, uses the neutral position, in variable degrees, as he reformulates the interventions of the students and avoids the exhibition of its personal points of view.