How prosody marks shifts in footing in classroom discourse

David Skidmore, Kyoko Murakami

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Prosody refers to features of speech such as intonation, volume and pace. In this paper, we examine teacher-student dialogue in an English lesson at a secondary school in England, using Conversation Analysis notation to mark features of prosody. We also make connections with Goffman's theoretical concept of footing. We show that, within an episode of teacher-led plenary discourse, prosody may be used to signal shifts in footing between different kinds of pedagogic activity. We identify: (i) teacher-led IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) discussion; (ii) the teacher's modelling of exploratory talk; (iii) a shift to instruction-giving. If teachers are able to model the enquiring tone of exploratory talk, they may in turn encourage more thoughtful contributions from students.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)69-77
Number of pages9
JournalInternational Journal of Educational Research
Volume49
Issue number2-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • Conversation analysis
  • Dialogue
  • Discourse
  • Footing
  • Prosody

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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