One central issue for research in classrooms is to provide insights concerning characteristics of classroominteraction that can help teachers improve their teaching. In the present study, we analyse spokeninteraction in one elementary physics classroom by the use of two different frameworks, targeting similar aspects of communication, namely how discourse patterns shape the relations between participants. The two frameworks utilized are on the one hand an analysis of the communicative approach according to Mortimer and Scott, combined with an analysis of discourse patterns such as initiation-response-evaluation(IRE), and on the other hand analysis related to the interpersonal meta-function in Halliday’s systemicfunctional grammar (SFG). The aim was to highlight possibilities and limitations of the differentframeworks. Our analyses reveal that the two analytical frameworks have partly the same, partly different affordances concerning what they can reveal about classroom interaction. The analysis of the communicative approach has the potential of elucidating discursive patterns and power relations at a general level, while the analysis based on SFG can provide more details about, e.g., the power relations in terms ofhow the participants actually structure their utterances. The results are also discussed regarding implications for education.