Research projects: You signed up for conferences to talk about ideas for your research project. The schedule is for the week beginning Monday, Sept. 23, and all meetings will be in my office, CAS 324.
Monday, Sept 23: 10:00 Julissa; 10:15 Sam; 10:30 Sarina; 2:00 Jaleel; 2:45 Danielle B; 3:30 Bri
Tuesday, Sept 24: 10:30 Carolina; 3:30 Trisha; 3:45 Jennifer; 4:00 Tanaera
Wednesday, Sept 25: 2:00 Silvia, 2:15 Eli; 3:15 Tania, 3:30 Rachel
Thursday, Sept 26: 3:45 Danielle J
Do some writing/thinking over the weekend what kind of research project you might like to do. I will help you find writing studies research relevant to your study, and talk about what kind of methods you might use to work on your study.
Presentations on shaggy dog stories. Great presentations! Each group demonstrated the kind of naming, categorizing, and theorizing (about what elements are 'essential') characteristic of language analysis for writing studies! Good start on this. I will give you some written feedback on your blog posts by next class. To receive credit - each group member needs to have the analysis posted on his or her blog.
I apologize for rushing you through these presentations - especially the groups at the end (sorry, Eli). It did not reflect the quality of your work - but rather the fact that (as usual) I'd scheduled just a few too many activities for class and I was worried about covering them all.
Mini-lecture on discourse & Discourse
We talked about discourse some more, only this time - after restating that discourse is "language in use" - we began with your definitions of language. Your list is as follwows.
a form of communication - a way to know others
expresses self and feelings
conveys ideas
creates knowledge
adapts/changes => depending on who you are talking to and what you are talking about (by context)
has many different forms
Your definitions covered all the main concepts linguists include when they write about language. James Gee defines language as not just the grammar & vocabulary, but as allowing us to do, say, and be things. These are exactly the concepts for language that your definitions cover!
Discourse: We then spent some time focused on the concept of Discourse - which includes not just all the language we use to "be" ourselves, but also all the other ways we create meaningful communication about our identities (who we are). Discourse includes not just how you talk (and all the ways you talk including word choice, tone of voice, accent and so on) but also how you dress, behave, your facial expressions, your values and beliefs and how you enact them => essentially everything about you that expresses who you are within a particular situation. We each take part in many Discourses (which Gee defines as "identity toolkits") - the ways of talking, being, and thinking associated with our different identities. I take part in teacher Discourse, as well as Discourses for being a white-middleclass female parent, for being a rural Pennsylvanian (my childhood Discourse), for being a researcher (as I work with my colleagues on different projects); for being folk dancer and so on.
As an example, we made a list of student identities - including the "good"student, the disinterested student, the one there for the grade, the student with many demands on his/her life, the rebellious student, the class clown, the always talking student, the quiet student . . . . These categories are complicated, and students move in and out of them for many different reasons. To begin to understand some more detail about how students enact these identities in class, we made a list of "moves" students make to establish their student Discourse. Here are the "moves" you came up with
talking in class
raising hand
calling out
being quiet in class
making on topic comments
talking off-topic, particularly about personal material
asking questions
answering teacher questions
where students sit
showing up on time
staying in the room
eating during class
taking notes
coming to class prepared
Analysis of language moves that define different Discourses. As we discussed this list, I pointed out some of the linguistic terms associated with talking = holding the floor, or floor time, and turn taking. These are two categories (names for moves that speakers use in different ways) that linguists use to analyze talk.
They might look at: who takes the most floor time? What are the agreed upon practices for holding the floor? Are their different expectations for holding the floor for different members of the community? What do Discourse members do when someone violates agreed upon for holding the floor?
or
What are the patterns for turn taking? What are acceptable moves for interrupting turns? Do turns overlap or is there only one person talking? What are the practices/signals for ending or interrupting turns?
Sample ethnographic essay.
We concluded the first half of class with an examination of the sample ethnography essay. Your suggestions about how to strengthen this essay were to:
- state the focus more clearly at the beginning of the essay
- use the focus to organize + develop the essay (delete material not relevant to focus)
- the overall organization was mostly good in that each section made the right moves - but the internal organization of the sections needed work. Also, the author needed to delete some material + develop other material.
- write a stronger conclusion that is more specifically connected to the findings and the focus
Discussion of what we did during the second part of class and the assignment for 9.24 is on the next blog.
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