LINGUIST List 16.2505
Tue Aug 30 2005
Diss: Applied Ling/Discourse Analysis: Frazier: 'Co-...'
Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski
<meganlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Stefan
Frazier,
Co-Constructing Literacy Spaces: Examining the talk of undergraduate composition students in classroom peer group interaction
Message 1: Co-Constructing Literacy Spaces: Examining the talk of undergraduate composition students in classroom peer group interaction
Date: 30-Aug-2005
From: Stefan Frazier <sfrazier
sjsu.edu>
Subject: Co-Constructing Literacy Spaces: Examining the talk of undergraduate composition students in classroom peer group interaction
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Program: Department of TESL & Applied Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: Stefan Frazier
Dissertation Title: Co-Constructing Literacy Spaces: Examining the talk of undergraduate composition students in classroom peer group interaction
Dissertation URL:
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~sfrazier/diss.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Applied Linguistics
Discourse Analysis
Dissertation Director:
Frederick Erickson
Charles Goodwin
Marjorie Harness Goodwin
Christine Holten
Dissertation Abstract:
University and college composition instructors regularly assign their
students classroom group work in which the students are to 'share their
ideas' with each other about work they have done or will do. One rationale
for such group work discussion is that students will learn from each other,
and the ideas, understandings, or stylistic choices they share will enhance
each student's progress toward more complete coverage of their work. In
addition, the talk that occurs during group work is meant to help students
to recall life experiences that they might then incorporate as narrative in
later versions of their work.
But what are our students actually saying as they report to each other in
groups, what is their talk doing to their interaction, and how is their
interaction organized? This dissertation analyzes the structures of talk
and embodied interaction in student group work in university writing
classrooms. Using video data of naturally occurring interactions (rather
than experimental data), the dissertation draws its methodological
inspiration from conversation analysis and from analytic approaches to the
way talk, gesture, and other forms of embodiment join in a semiotic ecology
to produce social action in the course of interaction.
Students in group work 'share their ideas' in highly structured ways: their
'reports' are similar to 'stories' in ordinary conversation; they produce
ongoing evaluations of each others' ideas in precise, relevant positions;
and they may produce 'followup reports' that reflect and legitimize a
report they have just heard. In addition, they sometimes make errors about
what they are meant to be doing, but have precise and effective means of
redressing such errors. In short, students in group work make effective use
of a range of semiotic / interactional resources to show that they are
'doing group work.'