Creating pre-Evaluation opportunity spaces in IRE sequences: Evidence from Italian L2 classrooms in a University Context.

This thesis explores L2 classroom teacher-fronted activities organised in Initiation-Response- Evaluation (IRE) sequences, during beginner and intermediate lessons of Italian at the University level. More specifically, the study analyses the ways in which teachers address a variety of pedagogical contingencies while simultaneously progressing the interaction. It is argued that the tripartite sequential structure provides the teachers with pre-evaluative moments - here defined as pre-Evaluation opportunity spaces - emerging between the student’s responsive move (R) and the teacher’s third positioned evaluation (E). The research draws upon 30 hours of video- and audio-recorded interactions from two University Italian L2 classrooms. The study is informed by multimodal Conversation Analysis and socio-interactional approaches to language learning. Classroom interaction is, thus, regarded as one institutional type of social interaction and - as such - is viewed as jointly achieved by participants, sequentially organised, and relentlessly negotiated on a moment-by-moment basis. The findings show that the teachers regularly exploit specific IRE sequential affordances, such as the inter-move space between the student’s responsive move and the teacher’s evaluation. In particular, the fine-grained analysis of the teachers’ multimodal conduct uncovers how such opportunity space arising between Response and Evaluation may be employed in order to invite peer-correction practices, manage shifting classroom participation frameworks, distribute agency in the L2 classroom, and orient to the omnirelevant property of sequential progressivity while attending to concurrent institutional pressures. Furthermore, the analysis unearths how such intra-move space might be organised through the mobilisation of different semiotic material, such as head nods, pointing gestures, gaze, and body orientation. The findings confirm the adaptive quality of the IRE sequence organisation as one fundamental infrastructure that embodies the reflexive relationship between pedagogy and interaction

Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

Conversational Movement Dynamics and Nonverbal Indicators of Second Language Development: A Microgenetic Approach

This dissertation study extends on current understandings of gesture and embodied interaction with the eco-social environment in second language development (SLD) while introducing new aspects of movement analysis through dynamical modeling. To understand the role of embodiment during learning activities, a second language learning task has been selected. Dyads consisting of a non-native English-speaking student and a native English-speaking tutor were video recorded during writing consultations centered on class assignments provided by the student. Cross-recurrence quantification analysis was used to measure interactional movement synchrony between the members of each dyad. Results indicate that students with varied English proficiency levels synchronize movements with their tutors over brief, frequent periods of time. Synchronous movement pattern complexity is highly variable across and within the dyads. Additionally, co-speech gesture and gesture independent of speech were analyzed qualitatively to identify the role of gesture as related to SLD events. A range of movement types were used during developmental events by the students and tutors to interact with their partner. The results indicated that language development occurs within a movement rich context through negotiated interaction which depends on a combination of synchronized and synergistic movements. Synchronized movements exhibited complex, dynamical behaviors including variability, self-organization, and emergent properties. Synergistic movement emergence revealed how the dualistic presence of the self/other in each dyad creates a functioning intersubjective space. Overall, the dyads demonstrated that movement is a salient factor in the writing consultation activity

Relationship-building through embodied feedback: Teacher-student alignment in writing conferences

Over the last two decades, an impressive amount of work has been done on the interaction that takes place during writing conferences (Ewert, 2009). However, most previous studies focused on the instructional aspects of conference discourse, without considering its affective components. Yet conferences are by no means emotionally neutral (Witt & Kerssen-Griep, 2011), as they involve evaluation of student work, correction, directions for improvement, and even criticism—that is, they involve potentially face-threatening acts. Therefore, it is important for teachers to know how to conference with students in non-threatening and affiliative ways. The present study examines 1) the interactional resources, including talk and embodied action (e.g., gaze, facial expression, gesture, body position) that one experienced writing instructor used in writing conferences to respond to student writers and their writings in affiliative ways, and 2) the interactional resources that the teacher used to repair disaffiliative actions—either her own or those of the students—in conference interaction. The data for the study are comprised of 14 video recordings of conference interaction between one instructor and two students collected over a 16-week semester in an introductory composition course for international students at a large U.S. university. Data were analyzed using methods from conversation analysis (Jefferson, 1988; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Schegloff, 2007; Schegloff & Sacks, 1973) and multimodal interaction analysis (Nishino & Atkinson, 2015; Norris, 2004, 2013). The conceptual framework adopted in this study is based on the notions of embodied interaction (Streeck, Goodwin, & LeBaron, 2011a, 2011b), embodied participation frameworks (Goodwin, 2000a), and alignment (Atkinson, Churchill, Nishino, & Okada, 2007). Findings indicate that the instructor was responsive to the potentialities of face-threatening acts during conference interaction, and she effectively employed various interactional resources not only in responding to student writing in affiliative and non-threatening ways, but also in repairing the disruption in alignment caused by disaffiliative actions of either of the participants. This study demonstrates the value of teachers’ embodied actions not only as tools that facilitate instruction but also as resources that can be used to keep a positive atmosphere in writing conferences. The findings contribute to the existing body of research on writing conferences, feedback, embodied practices in teacher-student interaction, and teacher-student relationships and rapport. The study also has implications for general classroom pedagogy, second language teaching, and second language writing instruction

Interaction and collaboration across proficiency levels in the English language classroom

One aim of adult General English courses is to help people to develop the ability to communicate in English with a diverse range of speakers, including individuals with different levels of linguistic proficiency. However, classes that are streamed by linguistic proficiency level provide little opportunity to communicate with a diverse range of interlocutors during class time. This study investigates peer–peer interaction in multi-proficiency-level class sessions that were introduced to mitigate this perceived gap. In these sessions, participants in multi-level groups completed tasks designed to provide opportunities to develop aspects of interactional competence relevant to goal-oriented, collaborative interaction. At the time of the study, implications of proficiency for participation in the group tasks were not well understood, which impeded further development of task materials. With this study, I aim to provide greater understanding of the relationship between differences in proficiency and speakership in the group tasks. Groups were recorded as they completed the task and conversation analytic methods were used to investigate key features of group interaction. As a result, I identified the recurrent practice of joint-project-initiating moves. With these moves, speakers propose joint action (Clark, 1996, 2006, 2012) in sequential first position for potential uptake by other group members. Two classes of joint-project-initiating moves were identified: canonical first pair parts that make response from another speaker strongly relevant (Stivers & Rossano, 2010), called more-response-mobilising moves, and non-canonical actions done in first position that make response less strongly relevant, called less-response-mobilising moves. Within each class, I describe recurrent actions done by participants, use of response-mobilising features of turn design, and distribution of speakership across group members of different relative linguistic proficiency. For the most common type of joint-project-initiating moves, idea-generating moves, I describe features of moves in next position. The study contributes to our understanding of the interrelation between asymmetries in relative linguistic proficiency and participation in collaborative group work through the interactional competence of initiating and taking up joint projects. The thesis concludes with recommendations for further research based on these finding

Pragmatics & Language Learning, Volume 12

Pragmatics & Language Learning Volume 12 examines the organization of second language and multilingual speakers’ talk and pragmatic knowledge across a range of naturalistic and experimental activities. Based on data collected on Danish, English, Hawaiʻi Creole, Indonesian, and Japanese as target languages, the contributions explore the nexus of pragmatic knowledge, interaction, and L2 learning outside and inside of educational settings. Pragmatics & Language Learning (“PLL”), a refereed series sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawaiʻi, publishes selected papers from the biennial Conference on International Pragmatics & Language Learning under the editorship of the conference hosts and the series editor, Gabriele Kasper

Questioning in the Saudi EFL University classroom :student perspectives and teacher practices

PhD ThesisQuestioning is perhaps the most common form of discourse between teachers and students in classroom settings, however, research interest in questioning in second/foreign language classrooms has largely applied to the measurement and development of teachers’ questioning skills. This focus on the teacher may however obscure the potential importance of student perspectives and practice preference towards questioning in the classroom discourse. Although questioning is a central aspect of any classroom discourse, it is still an under-researched area in the Saudi classroom context. This thesis is an investigation into some practices and perspectives pertaining to the questioning behaviour of teachers and students in a higher education English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom context. Participants included 12 experienced EFL teachers and 341 first-year students at a public university in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The study aimed to investigate student perspectives on questioning that was undertaken in their classes and to identify the functions of teachers’ questions and the question modifications (if any) that teachers employ in instances where students do not answer. The study also considered, however not as a main focus of attention, whether there are any gender-related differences or commonalities in the teachers’ and students’ perspectives and reported classroom questioning practices. In order to triangulate the sources of the study’s data, a mixed method approach for data collection was used. The study was conducted in two phases, one quantitative, using statistical formula; and the other qualitative, using principles of discourse analysis and content analysis. Three methods were utilised in order to obtain data for this study and establish a better understanding of the EFL classroom questioning under consideration. These were namely, questionnaires, video-recorded classroom observation, and stimulated recall and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that, in addition to functioning as elicitation tools, teachers’ questions possess different discursive functions, such as the assistance of students’ production of fluent L2 talk, the repair of communication breakdown, the invitation students’ guesses, and the management of classroom practice. Teachers also employed various question modification techniques to their unanswered questions. The results of this study’s discourse analysis, together with those from student surveys and teacher interviews, indicate to a number of implications and contributions as regards EFL classroom discourse and language pedagogy.Saudi Arabian Government (Saudi Cultural Bureau in London)