The teacher is the dominant participant. “What is the main point of the poem?”. The teacher is demonstrating his authority by choosing the topic. The teacher uses the interrogative “Is it literally about a man ‘playing with the snow’?”, this encourages the pupils to really think about the meaning of the play. The teacher again shows his authority by choosing who speaks in the classroom, “I haven't asked you Alex”. The teacher uses latched talk, “His desires. Right.” to point the students in the right direction. The fact that the teacher interrupts the student could be seen as an abuse of his power, however in opposition to this it could be viewed as a good thing, as the teacher is guiding the student to the right answer. “[er, [great” the teacher uses this co operative overlap to almost stop the student from doubting herself.
1)We can tell that Hector is the dominant participant because he initially sets the agenda, “what have we learned this week?”. Also Posner uses the vocative ‘sir’ which suggests that Hector is of high authority to Posner.
2)Posner responds by again using the vocative ‘sir’. Posner also uses interrogatives, “I wondered, sir”, to widen his knowledge on the poem.
3)One key quote is "The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way, we this way.” This quotation demonstrates the idea of sexual desire and swearing off of something that once gave him pleasure.
Some good ideas. Instead of "choosing the topic" use the terminology 'setting the agenda' or you don't get credit. And instead of just saying "choosing who speaks" add 'by applying constraints in the utterance "I haven't asked you Alex" to deny Alex permission to speak, which only the powerful participant could do.' Check the meaning of 'latched talk' as it is not interruption but quickly switching from one speaker to another at the end of subsequent turns. Where is the paragraph on the Drummer Hodge episode to contrast with this and apply the same terminology - it's in your heading but not posted?
ReplyDeleteThese ideas about Hector and Posner are a good start - cna you draft them into PEE please. It's a good idea to contrast the techniques in the Drummer Hodge episode with the transcript to see how the conventions of 'teacher talk' work in dfferent contexts.
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