Re:Final Exam Answers by 이은경

[kellogg]

《 DATA 》

01   KT: Good Morning, class.

02   Ss: Good Morning, teacher.

03   KT: What is the date today? (pause)

Shouldn't THIS be 04? Oh, 아영!

It's a VERY serious question. What IS the right unit for analysis? What IS a "whole" unit of communication? In some ways, it's the most serious question we have in Whole Language.

One way to answer this, of course, is to look at sentences. "Oh, Ah yeong!" is not a sentence. So it's not a unit of communication.

But this doesn't make sense. The teacher asks a T-ANYONE question and then NOMINATES somebody when nobody answers. This is a very important part of the data.

At least, the kids think it's important. They GENERALIZE this rule (T-A-->T-S1) and so they do not raise their hands in the next interaction. That means the teacher has to CHANGE the interactional rule.

Now, we would LIKE our units of analysis to be real, natural, objective, scientific units. Units we can ALL agree on. So we can start from the TURN. The turn is the time, the space, and above all the language betwen one change of speaker and another change of speaker. It's real, natural, objective, and scientific. It's actually ICONIC.

Then things get a little more complicated. Bakhtin argues that there are certain points where the speaker IMAGINES a possible change of speaker, but no change of speaker occurs. Like this:

03   KT: What is the date today? (pause)

(KT imagines someone volunteering an answer, but she is disappointed. She realizes tha there will be no answer until she nominates somebody. She also realizes that the NT doesn't know the kids' names well enough to nominate somebody. So she says...) Oh, 아영!

This idea of a POTENTIAL speaker change is also part of Harvey Sacks, and Conversation Analysis,  Sacks calls turns "Turn constructional units" (TCUs). These can be clauses, or sentences, or words. He also says that at the end of each TCU there is something called a "Transition relevance point" (TRP) which is a place where the speaker can change.

The TRP is really not about pauses, though; it's about the EXHAUSTIVENESS of the reply, the extent to which it can be considered a completed idea. The interesting thing is that everybody KNOWS what a TRP is, even without the pause and without the grammatical cues.

How do they know? Well, there are basically THREE rules:

a) The current speaker selects the next speaker.

b) If the current speaker does NOT select the next speaker, then the first person to speak after the current speaker stops is a self-selected speaker.

c) If nobody self-selects, the current speaker can continue, and we go back to a).

Now, you can see that ALL THREE of these rules are relevant to the data that we just looked at. First, the KT stops and waits for somebody to self select, b). Since nobody self-selects, she continues c), and takes us back to a), where she selects Ayeong.

See Sacks, H. (1992, 1996) Lectures on Conversation. London: Blackwell

Also: Seedhouse, P. (2004) The interational architecture of the language classroom. Malden: Blackwell.

04   아영: November tenth.

05   KT: It's November tenth, right?

06   Ss: Yes. Rule b)

07   KT: Good! Rule b)

08   NT: So, does anyone here have a November birthday? Rule b)

     Were you born in November? (as raising his right hand to encourage Ss answer)

09   Ss; (nobody raises one's hand)

Good! Which rule do the teachers prefer? a, b, or c? Why?

10   KT: 11월 달에 태어난 사람?

11   Ss: (one S raises his hand)

12   NT: When is your birthday?(as pointing to S1 who raises his hand)

13   S1: My…(pause) November…(long pause) is ……

14   KT: My birthday is …

15   S1: My birthday is November (a very short pause)seventh.

16   KT: Oh, November seventh. Okay.

17   NT: November seventh. Okay.

     When is your birthday? (as looking at KT and throwing the soft       big die to her)

18   KT: My birthday?(as catching the die) My birthday is September       twenty-second.

     Okay, Mr. Collen,(as looking at NT and throwing the die to him)       when is your birthday?

19   NT: My birthday is May thirty-first.

20   KT: May thirty-first.

21   NT: Everybody, listen and repeat.

      My birthday is 따따라따다.

22   Ss: My birthday is 따따라따다.

23   NT: My birthday is 따따라따따따라따따따다.

24   Ss: My birthday is 따따라따따따라따따따다.

25   NT: Okay. Are you ready?(as pretending to throw the die to Ss)

26   Ss: Yes.

27   NT: You, do like this.(as pretending to catch the die)

28   NT: Are you ready? (as pretending to hit his head with the die)

29   Ss: Yes.(more louder)

30   NT: Are you ready?(much more louder)

31   Ss: Yes.(much more louder)

32   NT: (throws the die to S2)

33   S2: (catches the die)

34   NT: Okay. Everyone. Ready. 시작!

35   Ss: When is your birthday?

36   S2: My birthday is July eight.

37   NT: July eight. Okay, good!

     Throw!(to S2)

38   S2: ((throws the die to S3)

39   S3: (catches the die)

40   NT: Okay. Ready! (as giving signs to Ss to speak up)

41   Ss: When is your birthday?

42   S3: My birthday is February twenty-first.

43   KT: February twenty-first. Okay. Good job!

b) Look at how the teacher makes meaning (consider action as well as talk, grammar as well as vocabulary). Compare it to the way the children are making meaning. How are they different?

The teachers(KT and NT) make meaning by getting attention, giving information and checking integration : The teacher says like this "Everybody, listen and repeat." for GETTING ATTENTION. Through this Ss focus their minds on the teacher's next statement and repeat after him. The statement is a goal sentence structure that Ss have to reach by learning in this data.

And then he says "My birthday is 따따라따다." or My birthday is 따따라따따따라따따따다." for GIVING INFORMATION. The rest part(따따라따다 or 따따라따따따라따따따다) after "My birthday is~ ."is changeable. So he uses 따따라따다 or 따따라따따따라따따따다. Here, 따따라따다 or 따따라따따따라따따따다 has a symbolic meaning. It stands for month and date of a birth.

Of course, Eunkyeong is absolutely right here. The "information" the teacher is giving is really information about GRAMMAR.

It has NOTHING to do with the usual information we exchange using language, in which "Who says what to whom and why?" is a key component.

(By the way, Sacks' version of this question is a little different: "Why this, in this way, right now?" But you can see that the idea is really the same.)

The answer to our question is that "The teacher says 'my birthda is dadala, dadala, dadadda' to the children not in order to give them his birthday but in order to give them the grammar they need in order to give the teacher THEIR birthdays". In Sacks' terms, the answer is that the teacher says this, in this way, so that the children can use it.

Is this a "communicative function"? Well, yes, of course it is. Information about language can be communicated just as information about Namdaemun can be communicated. But is it DIFFERENT from, say, a structure based method of teaching. Of course not!

This is in itself a very important result, Eunkyeong! It suggests that from a Whole Language point of view, there is really NO difference between our 7th national curriculum and our 6th.

After that the teacher has Ss ask a question to S2 and then S3 for CHECKING INTEGRATION. Usually teachers use a direct way for checking integration, but the teacher uses an indirect way that have Ss ask instead of teacher. The teacher invites Ss' participation by using the way that have Ss ask instead of teacher.(30~42)

Right. And we saw how the teacher prepared this by giving an ABSTRACT RULE rather than a concrete example (there's a similar example in Seongkyeong's data).

Also, the teacher uses questions(03, 12) for CHECKING INTEGRATION. The teacher asks "Are you ready?" THREE times with a motion that he is pretending to throw the big soft die to Ss. So "Are you ready?" stands for "Are you ready for catching this die?" Second one has a different meaning. The teacher is pretending to hit his head with the die. So it means "Please, concentrate." Third one means "Are you ready to start?", because the teacher is just holding the die in his hands. NT adds meanings to his talk by using gestures.

The VOLUME of sound (the loudness of the voice) is also a way of adding meaning, no?

Ss repeat after NT's talk.(22,24) The sound that Ss are simply copying is a ICONIC MEANING.

The teacher's DEDUCTIVE method of giving a RULE and getting examples is a FAILURE.

Minkyeong expresses some impatience with the "atheoretical" writings of teachers in the 전교조. To tell you the truth, I sometimes find them TOO theoretical (they are given to discussions of Hegel and Aristotle and contradiction).

For example, we get long discussions about whether "deductive teaching" or "inductive" teaching is "correct". In Seongkyeong's data deductive teaching works very well. Here it doesn't work at all. But it's impossible to know which will work and where and when on the basis of theory alone.

The teacher stresses Ss' birthday as a new and import!ant information.  In this way the teacher draws Ss attention to the new and import!ant information by repeating the very meaningful part in the Ss' utterances. (16,17,20,37,43)

Good! Now, the discourse analysis response to this is to see this repetition as a kind  of "acceptance", or "validation" of the reply.

I think Harvey Sacks would NOT see it this way, and neither would Bakhtin. I think they would see it as mutli-functional. There are (at least) three different pieces of work being done when the teacher repeats the students' answer, and only one of them is really concerned with grammar and vocabulary and symbolic meaning-making.

First, the teacher is "accepting" and "validating" the reply. The teacher could easily REJECT the reply just by adding UP intonation. So it's the INTONATION that does this, not the repetition per se.

Secondly, the teacher is "rebroadcasting", making sure that everybody in the classroom can hear the reply (this is consistent with what Eunkyeong notices about the preference for S-S interaction). Again, it's the VOLUME which does this, not the repetition per se.

Thirdly, the teacher is slowing down the flow of information, making sure that we get enough examples before we go on to the next activity (this is consistent with an INDUCTIVE way of teaching rather than a DEDUCTIVE one).

S1 doesn't understand the NT talk(07), so KT interprets the NT talk(07) into Korean(08). Here, Korean is a THIRD-ORDER SYMBOLIC MEANING. KT uses a third-order symbolic meaning for helping S1's comprehension. Because NT's talk is a symbol of Korean, and Korean which KT uses is a symbol of English.(K:symbolic meaning-E:second order symbolic meaning-K:third-order symbolic meaning)

I'm lost here, Eunkyeong. If the Korean stands for English and English stands for Korean, aren't the orders of symbolism INFINITE? (There is a theory of meaning by Derrida which says that meaning is INFINTELY deferred--something ALWAYS stands for something else! But as Widdowson points out the very fact that we can understand this theory shows that it is not true.)

The student(S1) makes meaning by using his prior knowledge(e.g. name of month and ordinal number). Name of month and ordinal number are SYMBOLIC MEANING. They stand for the date that S1 was born. S1 knows the name of month and ordinal number that he was born, but he seems doesn't know the sentence structure for answering as a response of the question(12). S1 makes the proper utterance(15) with KT's help. KT gives S1 a hint(14).

Good! Notice how Eunkyeong uses NUMBERS instead of quoting the data. This is a Conversation Analysis technique--Harvey Sacks would be proud.

As I said, I prefer it when students QUOTE the data. That's more work, though, and Eunkyeong is in a hurry.

S2 tries to have eye contact with S3 before throwing the die to her. It means "I am going to throw the die to you." In this aspect, it is a symbolic meaning.

Wait a minute. Let's go back to Peirce. Remember?

a)      An icon is a thing that stands for itself.

b)      An index is a thing that stands for itself and for something else.

c)      A symbol is a thing that stands for itself and for something else by virtue of a law or a rule.

So a foot is an icon, a footprint is an index and the word "foot" is a symbol. If you like, you cansay that b) is a stimulus trace. Now you can see that the difference between a) and b) is qualitative, not quantitative. No number of feet will make a footprint.

But the same is true of b) and c). In particular, no amount of intelligence will really help you understand that "foot"means a foot. You can only understand this with the help of a socially enforced rule.

Also, having eye contact is an INDEXICAL MEANING, because S2 points with his eyes at S3 for giving a question to S3.

I agree. But where is the socially enforced symbolic rule?

How are teacher talk and Ss talk different? Let's take a look at Figure 1.

          Figure 1. Teacher Talk and Ss Talk

(The Total Turns of the Talk : 42times, teacher talk : 28times, Ss talk : 14times)

Meaning	teacher talk	Ss talk
Getting Attention	01,21a,34,37,40,43b(6times)
Giving Information	10,14,18a,19,21b,23,27 (7times)	04,13,15,36,42(5times)
Checking Integration	03,05,08,12,16,17,18b,20,25,28,30(11times)	35,41(2times)
Response	16,20,37,43a(4times)	02,06,22,24,26,29,31 (7times)

The teachers make meaning with very various ways, that is, getting attention, giving information, checking integration, and response.

Checking integration turns are the most, and getting attention turns and giving information turns are in a similar times.

Ss make meaning with giving information mainly. It is natural, because the teachers use the talk for checking integration. Ss' giving information is a reaction to the teachers' checking integration. The number of times of other talks     (02,06,22,24,26,29,31) are more than the number of times of giving information.

Notice that Ss NEVER perform one function. Which one?

These are responses for teacher talk. What kind of meaning do they have? Can they be categorized with getting attention, giving information, checking integration.

I'm not sure. So I made one category, that is, RESPONSE for them.

Also, Ss makes meaning through checking integration, but they are very different with teachers'. In this aspect T' making meaning is genuine one, that means, the teacher really wants to check the Ss' integration. But Ss case, making meaning means an imitating the teacher's example or following the role that is ordered.

Also teachers make meaning through action and showing example, too. Teachers use an iconic meaning, an indexical meaning and a symbolic meaning. The ways that teachers use for making meaning are really various.

Good.

Ss's case, they make meaning with Ss talk that consist with their prior knowledge(actual developmental level) and teacher's help(scaffolding). In this aspect they use mainly a SYMBOLIC MEANING in this data. Another way is using eye contact to point at someone. It's a INDEXICAL MEANING. Ss mainly make meaning for GIVING INFORMATION as a response of teacher talk(04, 15) or questions from peers(36, 42).

Now, they DO use loudness at one point. Which point? Why?