Week 2.2 - my plans to alter discourse

Having read and, despite the daunting combined page-count, thoroughly enjoyed the Xie and Walsh reading for this week, I set out to alter the discourse of my classes this week by using less obstructions to STT. Having looked through the transcription of my warm up from last week, it seemed there were times that my interjections had stopped the students in their tracks. Therefore, with the same student this morning, I made a conscious effort to not let myself become her focus.

Because she is used to the Asian classroom hierarchy, the fact that I open my mouth to speak could have been interpreted as the authority figure in the room interjecting to correct or comment, which resulted in her conceding to me. From the transcripts it was clear that quite often my interjections were nothing more than encouragement or natural responses in conversation. Therefore, I decided to use more physical encouragement, such as nodding and smiling or, at the most, "I see" or "hm-mm", unless I was specifically recasting/reforming.

I would have to say it was a quite successful experiment. Despite it may be seeming strange to an outside of observer, the student quite happily continued their utterances. Although her speaking was not necessarily more complex, however the length was certainly longer than normal. She did not seem to think that my lack of usual reactions were strange or out-of-the-ordinary and continued speaking, unless she needed scaffolding, reforming/recasting, until her point was finished.

Following on from my previous blog entry, it could be argued that, by doing this, I am not demonstrating "real-world" conversation style. However, from an STT perspective, it was much more productive class for her.

I will try to be aware of this in the ongoing classes I have. For the higher, more confident students, my usual interactions are not necessarily a problem. For the lower and intermediate students, this new classroom interaction style could well be a big help for their progress.