The interactional management of claims of insufficient knowledge in English language classrooms

Abstract

This paper primarily investigates the interactional unfolding and management of 'claims of insufficient knowledge' (Beach and Metzger 1997) in two English language classrooms from a multi-modal, conversation-analytic perspective. The analyses draw on a close, micro-analytic account of sequential organisation of talk as well as on various multi-semiotic resources the participants enact including gaze, gestures, body movements and orientations to classroom artefacts. The research utilises transcriptions of 16 (classroom) hours of video recordings, which were collected over a six-week period in 2010 in a public school in Luxembourg. The findings show that establishing recipiency through mutual gaze and turn allocation practices have interactional and pedagogical consequences that may lead to claims of insufficient knowledge. Furthermore, the findings illustrate various multi-modal resources the students use (e.g. gaze movements, facial gestures and headshakes) to initiate embodied claims of no knowledge and to show specific exchange structures. Finally, we suggest that certain interactional resources, including embodied vocabulary explanations and Designedly Incomplete Utterances (Koshik 2002), deployed by the teacher after a student's claim of insufficient knowledge may lead to student engagement, which is a desirable pedagogical goal. Our findings have implications for the analysis of insufficient knowledge, for teaching, teacher education and in particular for L2 Classroom Interactional Competence (Walsh 2006).

Jak učitelé německého jazyka užívají ve výuce angličtinu

“…non-answer -responce; viz Stivers & Robinson, 2006). Učitel reaguje otázkou, v níž se snaží ujistit, že žák odpověď opravdu nezná (request for con irmation; Sert & Walsh, 2013). Žák odpoví, že neví, a následuje zpětná vazba učitele, v níž uvede správnou odpověď (o průběhu interakcí v případě, kdy student vyjádří svůj nedostatek v cizím jazyce blí-že např.…”

“…Žák odpoví, že neví, a následuje zpětná vazba učitele, v níž uvede správnou odpověď (o průběhu interakcí v případě, kdy student vyjádří svůj nedostatek v cizím jazyce blí-že např. Sert & Walsh, 2013). Touto replikou je uzavřena vložená sekvence o "zimě" a učitel se vrací zpět k tématu "jaro".…”

“…Sert & Walsh, 2013), jež vyžaduje opravu, v některých situacích iguruje ale i jako reakce na nepreferovanou odpověď, kterou se pokouší učitel vrátit pozornost k ře-šení úlohy. Nápovědy mají nejčastěji podobu protiotázek, jejichž užitím uči-tel iniciuje žákovu sebeopravu (viz např.…”

Being a Non-expert in L2 English: Constructing Egalitarianism in Group Preparation Work

“…A third, though apparently less common, method for taking a stance of uncertainty towards one's own displayed L2 knowledge is to overtly claim a lack of knowledge (Sert and Walsh, 2013 …)), but in overlap with this, Goto shifts his gaze to Jimbo and states that he does not know how to spell something in line 06. In line 09, he laughs and shifts his gaze back to his paper as he states the word ("collapse") that he claims to be unable to spell.…”

Local Contingencies in L2 Tasks: A Comparison of Context-Sensitive Interactional Achievements across Two Different Task Types

“…Secondly, we tried to level the participants' engagement duration with each task: so both episodes come from the focal participant's first (recorded) encounter with the tasks. (Sert & Walsh, 2013) and ED's negative response token (no::). EL uses the knowledge check-no knowledge display adjacency pair as a preface to her evolving topic management, which is explicitly marked with a suggestion and exemplification in line 20.…”