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Cited by 277Language, Discourse, Communication StrategiesDiscourse Analysis in Language StudiesEFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

‘Being the Teacher’: Identity and Classroom Conversation

Richards, Keith·2006·Applied Linguistics
DOI 10.1093/applin/ami041
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Abstract

Recent debate on the standard classroom Initiation–Response–Follow-up pattern has focused particular attention on the final move and the contribution it can make to productive interaction in teacher-fronted situations. This paper suggests that current research in this area has tended to exaggerate the pedagogic impact of changes based on specifiable discourse moves, proposing instead an approach to analysis which takes account of the dynamic nature of identity construction and its relationship to the development of ongoing talk. It challenges the view that the concept of classroom conversation is inherently contradictory and, drawing on the work of Zimmerman (1998) related to the broader field of Membership Categorization Analysis, demonstrates how shifts in the orientation to different aspects of identity produce distinctively different interactional patterns in teacher-fronted talk. Using Zimmerman's distinction between discourse, situated and transportable identities in talk, extracts from classroom exchanges from different educational contexts are analysed as the basis for claiming that conversation involving teacher and students in the classroom is indeed possible. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of this.

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  • Richards (2006) demonstrates how student class participation is enhanced when teachers engage with learners' 'transportable identities'.

    “for example Richards (2006) demonstrates how student class participation is enhanced when teachers engage with learners' 'transportable identities', that is their out-of-class personas”

    From The motivational dimension of language teaching (2017) · cites this paper as Richards (2006)

    In “Option 4: Orientation to aspects of transportable identity” (page unavailable), Richards describes how introducing transportable identities can open up more conversational participation. But “Issues of implementation” calls the analyses illustrative and says engaging these identities may transform classroom interaction; it does not establish that teachers’ engagement enhances student participation as a demonstrated outcome. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 32

  1. Bellack, A. A., H. M. Kliebard, R. T. Hyman and F. I. Smith. 1966. The Language of the Classroom . New York: Teachers' College Press.
  2. Bye, A. 1991. ‗Classroom research: message-oriented and medium-oriented discourse.' LSU Bulletin 2:7-19.
  3. Cuff, E. C. 1993. Problems of Versions in Everyday Situations . Washington DC: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.
  4. Cullen, R. 1998. ‗Teacher talk and the classroom context.' ELT Journal 52/3: 179-87.
  5. Cullen, R. 2002. ‗Supportive teacher talk: the importance of the F-move.' ELT Journal 56/2: 117-27.
  6. Drew, P. 1991. ‗Asymmetries of knowledge in conversational interactions' in Marková and Foppa (eds.) pp. 21-48.
  7. Hester, S. and Eglin, P. (eds.). 1997. Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis . Washington DC: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis & University Press of America.
  8. Keppler, A. and Luckmann, T. 1991. ‗-Teaching‖: conversational transmission of knowledge' in Marková and Foppa (eds.) pp.143-65.
  9. Kerby, A. 1991. Narrative and the Self . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  10. Lin, A. 2000. ‗Lively children trapped in an island of disadvantage: Verbal play of Cantonese working-class schoolboys in Hong Kong.' International Journal of the Sociology of Language 143: 63-83.
  11. Lortie, D. C. 1975. Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  12. Markee, N. 2004a. ‗Zones of interactional transition.' The Modern Language Journal 88/4: 583-96.
  13. Markee, N. 2004b. ‗The organization of off-task talk in second language classrooms' in K. Richards and P. Seedhouse (eds.): Applying Conversation Analysis . London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.197-213.
  14. Marková, I. and Foppa, K. (eds.). 1991. Asymmetries in Dialogue. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
  15. Mehan, H. 1979. Learning Lessons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  16. Murata, K. 1994. Intrusive of co-operative? A cross-cultural study of interruption. Journal of Pragmatics 22/3-4: 385-400.
  17. Nunan, D. 1987. Communicative language teaching: making it work.' ELT Journal 41/2: 136-45.
  18. Nystrand, M. 1997. ‗Dialogic instruction: When recitation becomes conversation' in M. Nystrand, A Gamoran, R. Kachur and C. Prendergast (eds.): Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language Learning and Teaching in the English Classroom . New York: Teachers' College Press, pp. 1-29.
  19. Sacks, H. 1992a. Lectures on Conversation , Vol. 1, Ed. G. Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.
  20. Sacks, H. 1992b. Lectures on Conversation , Vol. 2, Ed. G. Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.
  21. Schegloff, E. A. 1987. ‗Between micro and macro: contexts and other connections' in J. C. Alexander, B. Giesen, R. Münch & N. J. Smelser (eds.): The Micro-Macro Link . Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 207-34.
  22. Seedhouse, P. 1996. ‗Classroom interaction: possibilities and impossibilities.' ELT Journal 50/1: 16-24.
  23. Sinclair, J. M. and Coulthard, M. 1975. Towards an Analysis of Discourse . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  24. Tracy, K. 2002. Everyday Talk: Building and Reflecting Identities . New York: The Guilford Press.
  25. van Dam van Isselt, H. R. 1995. ‗Where's -the lesson‖ in all this talk? Structural features of classroom floors' in E. Huls and J. Klatter-Folmer (eds.): Artikelen van de Tweede Sociolinguistische Conferentie . Delft: Uitgeverij Eburon, pp. 125-38.
  26. Vygotsky, L. S. 1962. Thought and Language . Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
  27. Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in Society . Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
  28. Warren, M. 1993. ‗Towards a Description of the Features of Naturalness in Conversation.' Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.
  29. Wells, G. 1999. Dialogic Inquiry. Towards a Sociocultural Practice and Theory of Education . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  30. Willis, J. 1992. ‗Inner and outer: spoken discourse in the language classroom' in M. Coulthard (ed.), Advances in Spoken Discourse . London: Routledge, pp. 162-82.
  31. Wilson, J. 1989. On the Boundaries of Conversation. Oxford: Pergamon.
  32. Zimmerman, D. H. 1998. ‗Discoursal identities and social identities' in C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds.): Identities in Talk . London: Sage, pp.87-106.

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Authors
Richards, K.
Affiliations
University of Warwick (GB)
Corresponding author
Richards, Keith
ORCID
Richards, Keith
Venue
Applied Linguistics
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2006-03-01
Volume
27
Issue
1
Pages
51-77
ISSN
  • 0142-6001 (ISSN-L)
  • 1477-450X
DOI
10.1093/applin/ami041
OpenAlex
W2066195285
Cited by
277
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 23
FWCI
70.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Applied Linguistics (publishedVersion)
  • Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
Keywords
teacher identity, classroom conversation, membership categorization analysis, situated identity, discourse identity, teacher-student relationship, classroom discourse, interaction patterns

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