Svahn2017
| Svahn2017 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Svahn2017 |
| Author(s) | Johanna Svahn |
| Title | ‘Don’t bother with that’: the use of negative imperative directives for defusing student conflict in a special support classroom |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Classroom interactions, Imperatives, Conflict, Affect |
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| Year | 2017 |
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| Journal | Classroom Discourse |
| Volume | 8 |
| Number | 3 |
| Pages | 235-252 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2017.1300100 |
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Abstract
This article examines episodes of potential student conflict in a Swedish special support classroom in which teachers deploy a particular type of directive in the form of a negative imperative: ‘bry dig inte’ (Eng. ‘don’t mind …; don’t bother …’). The analyses of three such extended episodes, by use of a conversation analytic approach, highlight how the focused directive works in a neutralising fashion in relation to students’ affective stances, constructed through bodily displays (postures, facial expressions, gazes) and/or verbal acts (complaints, accusations, insults), explicitly offering an alternative way for involved students to avoid participating in an escalation of a conflict. A pertinent element of the analysed episodes is how the focused directive format appears to downplay the relevance of a conflict source, as well as be orienting more towards teaching students self-restraint than towards reprimand and punishment. The analysis also demonstrated how the directive seems to bear meta-pragmatic knowledge specific to the particular school culture, leading the connotation transmitted in the context to be more comprehensive than what follows from the actual words.
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