Hansun Zhang Waring

Complex advice acceptance as a resource for managing asymmetries

Abstract Hutchby (1995: 221) calls advice giving ‘an activity which assumes or establishes an asymmetry between the participants’. The problematic nature of such asymmetry has been convincingly demonstrated by conversation analysts, especially in contexts where advice is uninvited (e.g., Jeerson and Lee 1992). This study turns to a context where advice is expected, but due to competence concerns, asymmetry remains problematic. On the basis of a detailed analysis of 10 graduate peer tutoring sessions, I show how two complex advice acceptance methods can be used by the advice recipient to reconfigure the asymmetrical role relations into less asymmetrical ones: (i) accept with claims of comparable thinking and (ii) accept with accounts. The extended shape of these methods suggests that advice responses, like compliment responses (Pomerantz 1978), may be subject to two competing preferences: Preference for Acceptance and Preference for Autonomy. Finally, consultants may benefit from understanding the complexities involved in advice reception. Recognizing that something else is being accomplished during ‘problem-free’ moments such as acceptance may lead to a more symmetrical relationship, and ultimately, a more satisfying and productive event for both participants.

Learner initiatives and learning opportunities in the language classroom

Scholars and practitioners have increasingly come to recognise the centrality of learner agency in generating learning opportunities. Such agency is most clearly observed in the initiatives that learners take in the language classroom. Despite the importance of learner initiatives, however, a precise and comprehensive understanding of what such initiatives entail remains lacking. Based on a conversation analytic treatment of 160 relevant cases culled from 14 hours of ESL (English as a second language) classroom interactions, I propose an empirically based ‘typology’ of learner initiative. Drawing upon various theoretical assumptions of what promotes learning, I also give preliminary considerations to the kinds of learning opportunities such initiatives generate.

Expressing noncomprehension in a US graduate seminar

Abstract This study shows that the expression of noncomprehension is a complex action dealt with skillfully and delicately by students in a graduate seminar. There is a noticeable orientation toward the delay of explicit admission. There is also a clear orientation toward offering an account of attempted understanding. Operating in concert with the delay and account is the appeal for group assistance. Based on such delay, account, and appeal, I argue for a dispreference for expressing noncomprehension in a graduate seminar. I also contend that instantiated in the conversation practices mobilized to accomplish the expression of noncomprehension are the speakers’ novice status in an institution of higher learning, their transitional identity as independent practitioners in the making, as well as their role as individual achievers within a collaborative context.

‘How was your weekend?’: developing the interactional competence in managing routine inquiries

Given the cross-cultural differences underlying interactional routines such as ‘How are you?’ or ‘How was your weekend?’, managing such routine inquiries can be problematic for second language learners. Based on data from an adult ESL (English as a second language) class, this conversation analytic study shows how learners develop their competence in mastering the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic aspects of certain interactional routines in English over the span of nine weeks. Through detailed analyses of teacher–learner interactions, I show what is being ‘taught’, how it is done, and what evidence of development may be garnered. Findings of this study contribute to the growing interest in the development of interactional competence and, in particular, the application of conversation analysis (CA) to the study of such development.

Two Mentor Practices that Generate Teacher Reflection without Explicit Solicitations: Some Preliminary Considerations.

Despite the push for fostering reflective practices in teacher education in the last 20 years, true reflection remains rare (Farr, 2011). Based on a detailed analysis of four mentor-teacher meetings in a graduate TESOL program, I show how specific mentor practices generate teacher reflection without explicit solicitations. Findings of this study provide some much needed specifications of what transpires at the level of interaction in mentor-teacher meetings in the context of second language teacher education. By engaging video as opposed to audio data, the study also offers an important methodological extension to the existing work.

Yes-no questions that convey a critical stance in the language classroom

Despite certain important critiques, much of the work on teacher questions has centered on the distinction between referential and display questions as well as their roles in creating more or less communicative classrooms. With some notable exceptions, few have delved into the specificity of how questions work in the details of classroom interaction. Based on 28 hours of videotaped adult ESL (English as a second language) classroom interaction collected in the United States, this conversation analytic study describes a particular type of yes-no questions used by teachers in environments where some sort of evaluation is relevant, the target of which varies (e.g. learner performance, textbook or a hypothetical linguistic construction). The yes-no question is used to convey a critical stance toward that target, as embodied in both the design and the receipt of these questions. Learners either align or dis-align with that stance. Dis-alignment transpires when the critical stance threatens concerns for learner competence or peer support. The findings contribute to prior literature on the nature of classroom discourse and teacher questions, and as such, can serve as a basis for illuminating and enhancing pedagogical practices.

Understanding the Sequential Resources for Doing Humor in the Language Classroom

Abstract Humor scholars have made great strides in identifying markers of humor such as prosody and laughter as well as the various social functions of humor in both everyday talk and workplace communication. Less research has been devoted to understanding the mechanisms of humor or how humor is done in naturally occurring interaction. Based on videotaped data from adult English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classrooms, we describe a specific set of sequential resources for producing humor in the language classroom and do so within a conversation analytic framework. We also give some preliminary consideration to the applicability of the findings in other interactional contexts as well as to the question of whether participants are oriented towards moments of humor as opportunities for language learning.

Managing Competing Voices in the Second Language Classroom

Existing literature on classroom discourse has highlighted the relatively constrained nature of turn-taking in the classroom as compared with that in ordinary conversation. Less attention has been paid to understanding how problems intrinsic to the classroom turn-taking machinery are dealt with. Based on 30-hour videotaped data from nine adult classrooms teaching English as a second language, this conversation analytic study details how the “chaos” of competing voices in response to teacher elicitations is managed in situ. Findings of this study extend our current understanding of (classroom) turn-taking and constitute a potentially important resource for broadening and specifying language teacher education.

A search for specificity in understanding CA and context

The conversation analytic view of context is often critiqued as being too narrow. In this article, we join the ongoing debate regarding conversation analysis (CA) and context by 1) synthesizing existing scholarly attempts at either conceptualizing or exploring the possibilities of combining CA and ethnography and 2) giving further considerations to whether or how resorting to talk-extrinsic data may be beneficial. We do so by providing four illustrative cases, with increasing complexity, from four different settings. In each case, an initial CA analysis is followed up with an informal ethnographic interview with the participants. By offering some specificity to this ongoing methodological controversy regarding talk-extrinsic data, we aim to begin building a useful framework within which further discussions on analysis, context, and cross-fertilization may proceed.

Promoting self-discovery in the language classroom

Abstract Promoting self-discovery appears to be a general relevancy oriented to by participants not only in ordinary conversation (Schegloff et al., 1977) but also in various sorts of institutional encounters (e.g., Edwards & Stokoe, 2007). The push for self-repair, for example, is considered an important learning activity which may be inhibited or retarded by other-repair (van Lier, 1988; Ohta, 2000). The aim of this paper is to investigate the complexities of the practices utilized to accomplish promoting self-discovery in the language classroom. Based on a conversation analytic account of 30 hours of audio and video-recorded adult ESL (English as a Second Language) lessons, I show two ways in which promoting self-discovery may become problematic in its implementation. I argue that language instructors need to be sensitized to the delicate balance between promoting self-discovery and providing interactionally contingent help.