Classroom Discourse Analysis: Exploring Communication in Education

Classroom Discourse Analysis

A proposal by Betsy RymesA note on educational linguistics first (Rymes) . https://youtu.be/kAXhd4PLbWw Watch this video and answer the questions:

1. What does educational linguistics study?
2. What is the repertoire approach to classroom discourse?
3. How does it work in a multilingual classroom?

Key Ideas in Classroom Talk

• Classroom activity takes the form of talk
• Different perspectives to approach classroom talk (applied linguistics, education, ethography, ethnomethodology)
• CDA (classroom discourse analysis) needed to understand how spoken language affect learning
• Spoken language and face-to-face interaction construct most of teaching and learning at school

Attending to Classroom Cultural Differences

Hawaiian Talk Story

. "This may be the best place to pause, and explain why I refer to "talking story" fairly often. Unfortunately, our Hawaiian ancestors did not pen a written history of our islands. Information was passed generation to generation verbally, with the 'Olelo (the language and spoken word) and in storytelling. Today there is much effort in our Hawaiian renaissance to record what we know about our past history before the kūpuna (our elders) forget and can no longer tell it to us. Still today, for us to communicate and dialogue is to "talk story." There is so very much I personally have learned from the 'olelo form of teaching, perhaps most of all that anyone who speaks has the potential to be my teacher. I only need to listen as well as I can, quieting the voices in my own head." https://www.shelivesaloha.com/blog/talk-story

African American English in the Classroom

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1-FgkfWo8
• African American/Black English features https://sites.google.com/site/blackenglishhistory/wh at-is-black-english/features-of-aave

A Three-Dimensional Approach

Social Context

Teacher: Hi Jack, how are you? Jack: Great, how are you? Teacher: Great. ((Student proceeds to desk) Counselor: How are you today, Jack? ((concerned expression)) Jack: Well, not so good actually. ((bursts into tears)) Language-in-Use € affects -> Social Context

The Second Dimension: Interactional Context

Language-in-Use affects Interactional Context

Typical Adjacency Pairs in Classroom Discourse

The Third Dimension: Individual Agency

Language-in-Use affects> Interactional Context/Social Context affects Individual Agency "By individual agency, I mean personal control, the ability to act in ways that produce desired outcomes or contribute to our own personal goals and projects. Having personal control seems straightforward enough. But, as we have discussed, social and interactional context controls us far more than we usually notice" (Rymes, p. 62)

Consider the Following Scenario

Chavo entered AP English class his junior year and consistently earned mediocre grades. At first, his teacher used superficial features to explain it away: "He's not a literature person." In many ways, he was not. He spent much more of his time after school practicing for sports than working on schoolwork. However, at the end of the school year, he had the opportunity to infuse his interests into his final humanities project. Students were to select a contemporary thinker, artist, and activist and illustrate through a multimedia presentation how these figures contribute to culture. Chavo's project illustrated how Jerry Colangelo, Michael Jordan, and Chris Berman have contributed to the U.S. cultural reverence for sport. His project won the contest for best end-of-the year humanities project. Fortunately, his teacher provided him an opportunity to be challenged and to illustrate the depth of his thinking, despite her initial impression of him as "not a literature person" (Young, 2004).

Chavo's Teacher and Interactional Norms

How does Chavo's teacher act counter to interactional norms that Chavo brought with him from previous social contexts and histories of classroom interactions?

Putting it All Together: A Three Dimensional Classroom Portrait

Social Context Individual agency DieCOURSE Interactional Context

When Doing Classroom Discourse Analysis We Need to Get to the Talk

How to Get to the Talk

1. RECORDING AND VIEWING (Chapter 3)
2. TRANSCRIBING (Chapter 4)
3. ANALYZING (Chapter 5 on)

Discussion Questions (Chapter 3)

1. What does it mean "establishing the shots"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlr6q28Hi4U
2. What does it mean recording for interactional context? What are speech events? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBDEHTbHfqc
3. What does it mean to record for individual agency?
4. Discuss the viewing guide proposed by Rymes (p. 74)

Viewing Guide: Elements of Context and Individual Agency

Chapter 4: Transcription Considerations

• What do we need to consider when we transcribe for social context?
• Why does Rymes suggest that transcripts can be stigmatizing?
• What types of decisions do we need to make when we transcribe for interactional context?
• Discuss the importance of transcribing for individual agency in Federico's story's transcripts (p. 136-137)

Federico's Story

Federico: Our neighborhood [ gang] started having shit with that neighborhood gang down there? So I went over there to the bus so they came and hit me up [asked me what gang I was from] I said my neighborhood [remained loyal to my gang by claiming my allegiance, even in front of these threatening rivals, in their territory]. and they said fuck that so they socked me? Everybody rushed me. hn. [He was one person, attacked by a big group of people] Then the next day we, we and the homeboys went down (0.6) [His gang retaliated the next day, as a group] and they got me. [The school authorities caught Federico fighting, so they kicked him out of school] So that's it.

A Multidimensional Approach to Transcription

Overview of Multidimensional Classroom Discourse Analysis

Discuss in Pairs the Example Train Hats (p. 142-43)

Train Hats (excerpt)

Teacher: ... Do men wear a lot of hats now? « initiating question Danny: Some don't. The train dudes- the train people wear they wear these like, big ol [things that Teacher: [The train people, that= Tiffany: Like this ((Pointing to the picture emphatically)) Teacher: =that drive the train (0.2) wear hats. Danny's response Danny: And somebody better put on some um things for um there little thing cause they hurt their ears. ((pointing into his ears)) Teacher: Ah, Danny: Because, the noise is come in the air and (0.4) Teacher: But do men, do a lot of men wear hats now? «same question SOCIAL CONTEXT INTERACTIONAL CONTEXT INDIVIDUAL AGENCY

Dual Language Program: Evergreen School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfegW-v7wu0 This video describes the two-way 50/50 dual language bilingual program at Evergreen Elementary School in the Shelton School District in Shelton Washington. Our school is a combination magnet/neighborhood school with a focus on second language acquisition in English and Spanish. The elementary program has been in existence for 15 years and is currently implemented in grades kindergarten through 5th grades. The program has been extended into Olympic Middle school for sixth and seventh grades and Oakland Bay Junior High school for grade 8 and 9. Our students are taught the adopted district curriculum. The difference is that our students receive both English and Spanish literacy instruction. In addition math is taught in English and Science and social studies in Spanish. An important outcome of our program is that research shows that graduates of dual language enrichment programs achieve two academic grade-levels above the average monolingual English speaking student by 10th grade. More importantly our ELL students are graduating at an 86% rate.