Creider2016

Creider2016
BibType	PHDTHESIS
Key	Creider2016
Author(s)	Sarah Chepkirui Creider
Title	Encouraging student participation in a French-immersion kindergarten class: A multimodal, conversation analytic study
Editor(s)
Tag(s)	EMCA, Applied, Education, Engagement, Participation, Second Language, French, Multimodality
Publisher
Year	2016
Language
City
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages
URL	Link
DOI
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series	Teachers College, Columbia University
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

Across disciplines, generations of researchers have called for more dynamic interactions in the classroom. In particular, teacher questions have been the focus of considerable work, with researchers asking what kinds of teacher questions—and what kinds of responses to student answers—are most fruitful. Little research, however, has looked beyond questions to other teacher practices that may encourage student engagement. Additionally, while there is growing interest in multimodal analyses of teacher-student interaction, few studies explore how a range of multimodal means may be used together to encourage participation in the classroom. This study, then, asks how teachers in a bilingual French-English kindergarten encourage student participation without asking questions. Using conversation analysis, interactions were transcribed and analyzed with particular attention to a variety of tools including language, body orientation, gesture, prosody, and objects. Data for the study come from a corpus of over 70 hours of videotaped interaction in the kindergarten classroom. Findings include three practices used by teachers to encourage student participation without asking questions. First, teachers developed routines which allowed students to participate on their own terms, but within careful expectations created via a variety of multimodal means. Next, during small group activities, teachers provided framing and focusing cues, explaining exactly what actions a given activity entailed, and where students needed to focus their attention in a complex environment. Finally, by displaying uncertainty or surprise during whole-class discussions, teachers seemed to make room for students to take on more authority. Thus, this study suggests that it may be possible to step out of the teacher-control vs. student-agency dichotomy, and that teachers can accomplish institutional tasks such as following a lesson plan while also encouraging student agency. Additionally, this research offers a window into an extremely broad range of multimodal tools used by teachers to support student participation, and used by students as they engage with classroom activities. Findings from the study contribute to work on student participation and agency, on multimodality in the classroom and in institutional settings more generally, and on managing conflicting tasks in institutional settings.

Notes